Teddy Bear

Harry stared up at the painting before the snake
in the painting moved and glared at him and it
hissed angrily.

\"Go away human.\" It hissed. Harry frowned and
then smiled. Perhaps he could talk the snake
into allowing him to enter the chambers inside
so he may find the identity of his mate.

\"Brother\" Harry hissed \"Pleasssssse allow me
enterancccce into the chamberssss that you
guard. It would mean sssso much to me if
you could grant me thisssss boon.\" Harry asked
rather eloquently. He then decided that he
had spent far too much time around the
Malfoys.

\"Ssssorry brother, but I am not allowed to
admit anyone who doesssss not sssspeak the
passsssword that my massssster charged me
with.\" The snake replied, no longer angry. \"It
hassss been quite a while ssssince sssssomeone
hasssss sssspoken to me in my own tongue.
What isssss your name?\" The snake inquired.

\"Harry Potter.\" Harry said. The snake blinked
and then swung open.

\"You have ssssaid the passssword.\" The snake
hissed. Harry blinked in surprise, and after a
moments hesitation, he entered the chambers
which the snake had been guarding.

Perhaps his mate was a veela as well? That would
be rather interesting. As he walked in, he surveyed
the room. He was obviously in a sitting room.

The walls weren\'t stone like the dungeon hallways.
They were made of wood, and painted a dark blue
and black. The floor had a thick, soft black carpet,
similar to the one in his bedroom. All of the furniture
was a deep forest green, except for a cherry wood
coffee table. Bookshelves lined the room, filled with
an assortment of books. From muggle romance
novels to the most complicated potion manuals that
one could possibly imagine, and some that one could
not. There wasn\'t anything else in the room to tell
more about the person who occupied these quarters.

Harry walked through the living room and paused by a
door that led into the kitchen. The kitchen had black
and red tiles on the floor, and the counter tops were
made of cherry red colored wood. The kitchen was so
clean that you could quite literally see your face in the
floor. Everything was organized and strtegically placed.
Even the spice rack was alphabetized, color coded, and
even had labels from where the spice had originated from.
It was quite impressive. There was even a table where
two people could sit quite comfortably. Like a black cafe
table with more comfortable chairs. Harry continued on.

He walked up to the only remaining door, where the scent
of his mate was the strongest. Just the scent alone had
caused his cock to stir. It didn\'t help none that the person
who occupied these rooms had the same dark colored
tastes. Without knocking, Harry opened the door to the
room.

The room was carpeted just like the living room, and the
bed had red silk sheets and a nice, warm looking, black
comforter laid over the bed. The pillows were black and red
silk pillows, and the bed looked surprisingly welcoming.
The furniture in the room was all black, and there was an
open door that led into a bathroom that looked strangely
familiar, except that the everything was the opposite color.
The walls were black and the tiling green, and so on and so
forth.

Harry\'s eyes scanned the room and his eyes landed on two
things that laid on the top of the bed. A journal and a familiar
worn, green eyeed teddy bear. Harry walked across the room
and flopped face down onto the bed. It smelled so good. It
smelled just like his mate. Harry then let out a groan. Would
he never find him? His mate wasn\'t even in here!

Harry turned his head so he could look at the teddy bear. He
pulled it over to him, hoping to smell his mate on the teddy
bear as well. He frowned when he smelled not his mate\'s scent
on it, but his own. He sniffed it again. There was absolutely no
residue of his mate\'s scent on this teddy bear, only his! He
then set the bear back down and sat up. He toed off his shoes
and curled up on the bed. He picked up the journal and opened
it. He stared at the first five words.

~The Journal of Severus Snape~

Harry stared at it and then felt compelled to read. He became
absorbed with this book. It began with Severus telling how he
had just begun to work for Dumbledore and the Order, and he
was using this journal as his only confidant. He continued to
read, listening to Severus talk about all of the missions that he
had done for Dumbledore, tell of all of his tortures (which Harry
seethed at), all of his dreams and hopes (mostly about finding
his mate), then he read about how his father and Severus had
finally managed to bury the hatchet once James found out that
Lilly was his mate. He then read about the night that his father
had given Severus his teddy bear and even found the note neatly
folded in between the pages of the journal.

Harry had absolutely no concept of time. All he did was read.
Read the elegant handwriting that flowed throughout these pages,
telling him all about his beloved Sev (as Harry had begun to call
him silently) and then Harry read about the first class that he and
Severus had shared. His first potions class.

He read about how Severus had freaked, and had acted like a total
prick in order to keep himself from doing anything inappropriate to
him until he reached of legal wizarding age. Then came all of the
dark writing. About how was Harry going to like having an old,
miserable man for a mate? How was he going to be able to deal
with an ugly, greasy bat like him? Harry was appalled that Severus
thought about himself in such a manner and resolved that when he
had Severus in his arms, he would never allow him to think such
thoughts, how he would never allow Severus to think so little about
himself. How he would always let Severus know how much he loved
him with all his heart.

He continued to read, nonetheless. Then he came to the last
page with writing, which Harry noted with amusement, was
almost at the very front. Apparently this book was charmed to
never run out of pages. It was like Severus to have a journal like
this.

The last entry spoke of the potion that he had created that would
allow him to decrease in years until he was roughly Harry\'s age,
and it would also eliminate his memories so he wouldn\'t
remember all of the horrible things that he had done in his life,
and that perhaps Harry would want him, slightly less damaged
goods. Harry slammed the journal shut angrily and chucked it
across the room. He grabbed the teddy bear and began to cry.

How could his beautiful Severus think so little of himself. He was
gorgeous. Perhaps never to the general public, but to him, Severus
was perfect in all ways, even with his bad temper. When his tears
ceased to fall, with a sniff, he got up and retrieved the book. He curled
back up on the bed, but was careful to keep the bear with him.

He opened the book up and he was on the same exact page as he
had been on before he had thrown the book across the room. There
was a potion that would negate the effects of the first potion and
would return him to his appropriate age, but Harry would have to
take half of it and Severus would have to take the other half.
Something about love triggered the magical properties of the potion.
He learned of the location of the other potion, Gringotts in vault 947
and the key was also in the journal, and that the potion would only
work after Severus had for the second time, come into his inheritance.

Severus\'s birthday wasn\'t until Christmas Eve. Talk about ironic. The
most hated professor in Hogwarts birthday was the night before
Christmas. Harry, then remembering what Dumbledore said earlier,
collected the teddy bear, and then left the room, thanking the snake
profusely before leaving, promising to visit it again sometime soon.



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TBC