Lost and Found

Chapter 6


When Harry woke the next morning, he found himself alone in the bedroom. He couldn’t remember going to bed, but that didn’t particularly surprise him. He had been mentally and physically exhausted the night before. He felt simply wonderful. None of the aches and pains from the day before were in evidence this morning. He had so much energy he felt like a little kid on Christmas morning. Jumping from bed he grabbed jeans, tee shirt, and a pair of boxers and headed to shower.


Standing under the warm water he contemplated his own uncooperative body. He knew what he had to do to avoid another public display, but he just wasn’t in the mood. He continued to rub himself absently while trying to think sensual thoughts. An image slowly started to develop in his mind. He pictured another naked body entering the shower with him. A strong arm fitting itself around his waist as he was carefully washed. A deep velvety voice speaking to him from right behind his left ear. He couldn’t have said why this memory would effect him this way but his hand was moving at a frantic rate and his breathing was becoming ragged. He stiffened and threw his head back as his body found it’s release. Absently he washed himself thoroughly before turning off the water. He dried and clothed himself mechanically as he tried to make sense of what he had done. His good mood from earlier was completely derailed and he wanted nothing more than to return bed and bury his head beneath his covers. How could a memory of Snape been so arousing? He knew that he would have to enter the kitchen soon, but he wasn’t sure that his Gryffindor courage extended this far. He was already embarrassed that Snape knew what he doing, how could he face that man now that he was thinking about him while he did it?


Snape watched as Harry mumbled a good morning and found his way to his place at the table, as expected, blushing and refusing to meet his eyes. He couldn’t put a finger on it, but something was off about Harry this morning. He didn’t say a word during breakfast and Draco’s comments were greeted with a grunt. Draco had thrown him a puzzled look while Harry’s head was down. Snape simply shrugged. “Draco we will need your help this morning. After lunch, Mr. Potter will get his opportunity for revenge so I would recommend that you stay here.” Draco snorted, but Potter’s eyes never left the food that he was playing with. “Shall we?”


Whatever it was that was bothering the young man was turning the training into a joke. He seemed to have forgotten everything that he had learned and was hit with most of the spells that the two Death Eaters threw at him. When Draco almost took off his arm with a simple Diffindo, Snape had had enough. “Potter, you arrogant, sniveling, little brat. do you think that the Dark Lord will care that you are in a bad mood. I don’t care what little melodrama you have running through the grey matter that passes for your brain, but get your shit together.”

Harry sat stunned for a moment. He was a bloody mess and the pain was intense, but he suddenly felt much better. It occurred to him that seeing his former Professor acting so out of character had fucked with his head. He felt confident that the scene in the shower was just some weird subconscious thing, telling him that something wasn’t right. Smiling at the angry man, he stood in his defensive stance and gestured for him to bring it on.

The rest of the morning went very well, as Harry demonstrated that, when he wasn’t having an identity crisis, he could effectively defend himself.


“Harry, why are you so chipper all of a sudden?” Draco asked as the three men made their way back for lunch.


He thought about it for a moment. He did in fact feel very energized again. The pain was also fading from his mangled body, which, given the number of spells that had hit him was, almost impossible. “I don’t know, but I feel great.”


Snape frowned a little in thought. Perhaps the magic in the clearing was effecting him somehow. He would have sworn that the cut marring, Potter’s cheek, had been longer just a moment ago. He found himself stopping the other mans forward progress with his hand and staring intently at the injury. To his complete amazement he could see it becoming more shallow and the skin knitting itself back together. “Draco, go on ahead. We will be there in a moment.”


Draco nodded and started on toward the cabin. He was feeling very left out, and it was starting to piss him off. What did the they talk about that he wasn’t allowed to hear? He was jealous that the older man was spending so much time with Harry. Dark suspicions began to cloud his mind at he walked.


Snape ran a finger down the now fading cut on Harry’s cheek. “How did you feel when you entered the clearing this morning?”


Harry had frozen when he felt the contact on his face. He turned wide open green eyes to meet ebony. “The same as before, but not as strong. I think my body is getting used to it.”


“Harry, I think your body is absorbing and utilizing it.” When he saw confusion and apprehension on his face, Snape continued. “Your magic is healing you. I feel confident that you did not have that ability before yesterday.”


“Oh. Is that a bad thing?”


“I don’t know.” Snape considered the situation, wondering if a dead spot could be drained, and if so, could a wizard control that much magic without damaging them self. “Did it seem like there was less magic in the clearing today, than there was yesterday?”


“No. I don’t think so. It just seemed less shocking to walk into it. It felt like...” He frowned and tried again. “The first time it felt like something foreign, pleasant but foreign, was flowing into and around me. Today if felt like a part of me.” Looking concerned he wondered aloud. “Don’t you feel it at all?”


“Only very powerful wizards can even sense the magic at all. I had to cast a charm when we got here to make sure that it really was a dead spot.” He still hadn’t moved. It worried him a bit that they could end up hurting Harry while trying to help him. “Why were you upset this morning?”


Harry felt his cheeks warm. “It was nothing.” He could see from the look on Snape’s face that he wasn’t going to get away with that. “It was personal.” Getting frustrated at the continued look of disbelief and irritation on Snape’s face, he decided to go for shock value. “I didn’t like what I thought about during my morning wank. Happy?”


Snape smirked evilly. “You cheated on the lovely Miss Weasley with another woman in your mind, Potter? How will you ever regain your self respect.” His voice was practically dripping with sarcasm.


“Ginny and I broke up almost three years ago.” Harry retorted with a growl. “Don’t you dare pretend that you know anything about me. At school you treated me like dirt, ridiculed everything that was important to me, killed a man that I loved and then disappeared. You are in no position to make statements about my life.” He wasn’t sure why he was so angry, but knew that this would solve nothing. He turned without another word and headed back to the cabin.


“Touché.” Snape said softly to the rapidly retreating Gryffindor, before slowly following in his wake.


Draco heard the door slam, and made it to the front room in time to see Harry walk into the bedroom and slam that door too. He didn’t have to wait long for Snape to enter. “What the hell is going on between you two?”


“I can assure you that nothing is going on between us.” Feeling a headache approaching he pushed past Draco and went in search of a potion. Knowing that the boy was at the breaking point he spoke over his shoulder. “Give me a moment and I will meet you in the kitchen.” He continued to the bathroom and opened the cabinet to find a mild pain-killer. He swallowed the potion and leaned his head against the cool glass.


He should have been better prepared, as he had spent the majority of his life dealing with children, but he was not handling the angst of the young adults in his care well. He knew that the blond aristocrat was trying to deal with the loss of everything that he had grown up believing, and the current situation was sure to be difficult. He had to deal with the death of his mother, the realization that his father wasn’t the man that he thought he was, and now possibly the loss of his dream to redeem his name.


Harry was yet another problem. He handled most of his problems with great maturity, which somehow made it more difficult, for Snape, when he reacted strongly to something. Atlas had nothing on Harry Potter. They both had the weight of the world on their shoulders, but one of them had chosen his fate and the other was simply born into it. He had to admit, if only to himself, that he had been frightened by the apathy that had afflicted the golden boy that morning. He thought that when he had snapped at him, it had stunned him out of his funk. He had briefly believed that returning to the snarly professor that he had always been had a positive effect. Now he wondered if maybe he had misinterpreted everything.


Running a cold cloth across his brow, he steeled himself for his confrontation with Draco. Sighing heavily he left the safety of the bathroom and made his way to the kitchen. He was greeted by a pacing blond. They stared at one another for a moment with the kind of understanding that could only happen when you lived with someone exclusively for a long period of time. Snape finally understood that the younger man had more at stake than simply the power of his name and teen hormones. “You are, really, worried about him.”


Draco knew that it wasn’t a question, but he answered all the same. “Your not? Half of the Death Eaters are counting on him to set them free. All of the rest are leaning on him for comfort and salvation. I don’t know what it is that you believe I am not trustworthy enough to hear, but I will tell you, that my primary concern is Harry. Not the hero, or the boy-who-lived, or even Potter. I am not stupid enough to believe that the man is any of those people. The nineteen year old boy in our bedroom needs our support. Not your support, or lack there of, but our support. I probably know more about him than anyone outside of his closest friends and you are purposely closing me out. why?”