Cupboard Space

CHAPTER 7

“Come on Harry, it’s just a party everyone’s probably forgotten about it already.” Ron prodded Harry in the side as the boy-who-lived lay on his back, trying to ignore his best friends persistent jabs. Harry knew no one had forgotten about him, Ron was just trying to get him to go to the party in the Slytherin common room. It had been a week since Harry had finished his detentions with Snape, and the boy was beginning to wish he was back under the safe watch of the potion’s professor.

“No Ron, I’m not going down there.” Harry snapped firmly as he tried to read his Transfiguration textbook.

“You know what Harry, you’re boring it’s no wonder no one’s asked you out in like forever.” Ron stood with his hands on his hips staring down at his best friend, who’d flipped over angrily at the comment to glare at the red head.

“Oh, so you don’t think it’s got anything to do with my reputation as a ‘limp dick’ do you RON?” Harry shouted angrily, slamming his textbook closed and throwing it into his truck at the end of his bed.

“So what if they’re calling you names Harry, just tell them to fuck off. We know the truth, girls just don’t understand the pressure associated with performance.” Ron shrugged his shoulders, before sitting down next to Harry on the edge of the bed. “Please Harry, come to the party I promise I won’t let anyone say or do anything to you.” Harry sighed heavily as he stared at his best friend, a puppy dog smile twitching at the corners of his mouth.

“Fine, I’ll come. But if anyone even mentions my name I’m out of there.” Ron brightened immediately and nodded frantically.

“I promise they won’t say anything Harry, I promise.” With a smile, and an excited ‘whoopee’ Ron was gone from the dormitory, no doubt bounding down stairs to the common room to tell Hermione and the others the good news. Harry sighed yet again and flopped back onto his bed and closed his eyes. In his head he heard Snape’s words echoing, ‘you’re hiding from them’. It made Harry shudder to think the professor was right, and so he’d stupidly agreed to go to the party just to prove a point. Harry knew it was a stupid way of proving something but it was already done before he could change his mind. Harry just hoped he wouldn’t regret his decision for the rest of his life.

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Harry sat in an armchair by the fire in the Slytherin common room, listening to the music and watching as randy teenagers fawned over each other all around him. Just as Ron had promised no one had approached him or spoken to him all night, although Harry had felt the stares and even heard the occasional giggle. He’d tried to block it out with the firewhisky the Slytherin’s had smuggled into the castle. He’d had two glasses already and was nursing his third, and so far the alcohol was doing its job. Miraculously Draco hadn’t been near Harry all night, the blonde far too wrapped up in his own socializing to even notice Harry was there.

“Alright everyone, game time!” Patty Winterchild was up on a table in the center of the room clapping her hands to get everyone’s attention. Eventually most people quieted down to listen to her, and gathered around. “It’s time for blind wizards kiss.” There was a twittering of excited laughter around the crowd, who obviously knew what she was talking about. Harry being of muggle heritage had never heard of the game before, but didn’t like the sound of it. “Okay gathered around, and let’s get the wand spinning.” Harry watched over the heads of the other students as Patty levitated her wand in the air and with a whispered spell sent it spinning off into the room. Everyone began laughing and ducking as the wand whipped its way through the crowd obviously searching for something. Harry sank low in his chair as the wand zipped over his head before dropping like a lead weight into his lap, making him wince slightly in pain. Harry stared at the wand sitting in his lap, before glancing up at the student body who were now staring at him and smiling.

“I don’t want to play!” Harry went to toss the wand back at Patty, but the girl folded her arms across her chest haughtily.

“Rules of the game scar head, everyone plays.” Draco’s sarcastic drawl filtered out from amongst the crowd. Harry shook his head defiantly.

“No way, I’m not playing.” Harry stood up from his armchair and tossed the wand to the floor, already making his way towards the door out of the common room.

“Oh, come on Harry it’s just a bit of fun.” Ron caught up with Harry and pulled him to a stop with his arm. Harry stared at his best friend for a long moment, Snape’s words yet again echoing in his mind. Harry was not hiding, he was just being cautious. With a reluctant nod Harry agreed to play and with a smile Ron dragged his friend over to the center of the group.

“Alright Harry, here’s your blind fold and Ron will escort you to the broom cupboard.” Harry backed away suspiciously from the green blindfold but was pushed back into it by Draco and Goyle who’d move behind him.

“What do I have to do?” Harry muttered as he was blindfolded and led to the broom cupboard in the Slytherin common room.

“All you have to do is kiss whomever the wand chooses next, and guess who it is. If you guess right you get to choose the next kisser, if not you have to complete a dare. It’s simple.” Harry could hear Patty’s voice through the closed door of the broom closet as he sighed and leant back against the stack of brooms, their bristles scratching his legs. Harry didn’t know how long he was in the cupboard for before he heard the door opening and whispering before someone was pushed inside with him.

“Hi.” Harry muttered unable to see whomever it was who’d been pushed in with him. There was no reply and Harry rolled his eyes from behind the blindfold. “Can we just get on with it, so I can get away from this stupid party.” Again there was no reply only the shuffling of feet before someone’s lips were pressed against his own. The lips were warm, soft and moist. They tasted of cherries and reminded Harry of the cherry cordial they sometimes had at meals. The kiss was brief and whomever it was pulled away from Harry quickly. Harry had no idea who it was he’d just kissed and frowned behind the blindfold. “Okay, can you give me a hint?” Harry muttered into the darkness.

“Sorry Harry.” A voice replied but Harry didn’t have time to process who the voice belonged to before a spell was whispered, and he was pushed hard in the chest out of the cupboard and stumbling into the common room. Still blindfolded Harry hadn’t yet realized what had happened until he instinctively reached for his wand and found himself naked, totally devoid of any scrap of clothing, except the blindfold. Harry tore the blindfold off and found himself standing in the center of the party, cold and naked everyone staring at him. Silence hung thickly around the room, everyone’s eyes trained on him in all his glory. Harry didn’t know what to do his brain completely shutting down as humiliation clouded his vision and made him sway dangerously.

“Nice knob Potter, pity it doesn’t work hey.” Draco’s voice drew Harry’s attention from everyone to the blonde, who was standing smugly to the side his blue eyes appraising Harry critically. It was then that brain function returned to Harry and the boy spun around to see who’d betrayed him. There standing in the doorway to the broom cupboard was Ginny Weasley, her eyes cast to the floor in guilt and her cheeks rosy with embarrassment. Harry didn’t know what to do as laughter broke out around the group, followed by cruel taunts and pointing fingers. Before he knew it Harry was running at full speed from the common room, crashing his way through the crowd and out into the corridors, the party’s laughter still haunting him. Naked, crying and afraid Harry didn’t know where he was going only blindly following his instincts. It was late so Harry was spared meeting anyone along the way. Harry found himself soon enough outside Professor Snape’s classrooms, and without a wand he crashed through the door and ran unseeing over to the store cupboard. Not even bothering to light the torch above the door Harry ran inside the room and with the door closed behind him cowered down in the corner, shivering and crying in fear that they’d followed him.

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Snape sat up in bed abruptly, shrill alarms echoing around his chambers. He swore to himself as he climbed quickly out of bed and pulled on the first thing within reach, his black teaching robe. His wards had gone off in his classroom, and one look at his clock told him it was way past curfew. The wards he’d had placed around his classroom were a new installment, having been sick and tired of students thieving things from his potion’s stores. Snape was not in a good mood, from having been woken so abruptly and whomever he found in his classroom was going to get it. Grabbing his wand from under his pillow Snape took off out of his chambers and ran down the darkened hallway towards his classroom.

The door into the main teaching area had been left open carelessly and Snape didn’t bother to sneak in, instead he strode in angrily his wand held high and outstretched in order to catch the culprit in the act. The classroom was empty however, no signs of whomever had broken the wards. Snape couldn’t help but sigh a little in disappointment as he rounded the classroom twice incase the perpetrators were hiding. He found nothing out of the ordinary though and having replaced his wand into the sleeve of his robe turned to leave. It was then that he heard it, the soft whimper that had he not been listening for it, might have missed it entirely. The whimper came from the potion store, and Snape quietly padded his way over to the closed door. With his wand yet again in his hand, Snape gently eased open the door to the cupboard and glanced inside. The torch wasn’t lit so the pitch black of the cupboard was only broken by the occasional flash of light that reflected from the many shelves of glass bottles. Snape couldn’t see anything but didn’t want to risk entering the darkness without knowing what he was up against. With a flick of his wand Snape lit the torch illuminating the entire cupboard. It took a second for Snape’s eyes to adjust to the new light but when they did the sight they beheld made him feel ill.

Harry Potter sat huddled into the corner of the potion’s cupboard, the boy having jammed his naked shaking body between two shelves and behind several large glass bottles of various ingredients. The boy looked completely devastated, alone and frightened and Snape sighed heavily as a pair of watery green eyes looked up at him from behind a jar.

“I needn’t ask what happened to you.” Snape stepped into the cupboard and sat down on the wooden step that lay abandoned under one of the shelves. Harry was silent and huddled tighter against the icy draft now blowing in from the cold classroom. Noting the boy’s shivering, Snape unbuttoned his cloak and handed it carefully over to Harry beneath the shelves in the corner. A tentative hand reached out and snatched the warm cloak. Snape sighed as glanced down at himself, sat in the icy coldness of his potion’s store dressed in only his gray calf length night shirt and his unlaced potion boots, his hair still in a tangled mess from his interrupted sleep.

“One year, your father and Black thought it would be funny to take photo’s of me in a certain compromising position and post them around the school.” Harry looked out from beneath the warm, familiar scent of the cloak as Snape began to talk, the elder wizard’s tone of voice far more sympathetic than Harry had ever heard it before. “I thought I would have died of humiliation and when the nicknames started I spent a lot of time locked in Moaning Myrtles Bathroom reading.” Harry sniffled and wiped his tear-filled eyes with the back of his hand, as he quietly listened to what Snape was confessing. It was hard for Harry to imagine Snape being anything less than fearsome; the elder wizard just seemed naturally tough. “I didn’t get a date that entire year because of those pictures, no-one talked to me and I spent a lot of my time alone, hiding.” With cramp in his back, and a cold backside Harry quietly crawled out from beneath the shelving and came to a stop sitting in front of Snape the man’s cloak now wrapped entirely around his body, shielding him from the cold and surrounding him in a scent that Harry could only describe as being purely Snape. “Then the following year, I caught Black with someone in the Quidditch showers one evening. By the time the rumor had spread about Gryfindor’s heartthrob, everyone had forgotten about me.” Snape smiled almost smugly to himself at the memory and Harry realized then what Snape was suggesting.

“So you think I’ll feel better if I get revenge?” Harry whispered his voice hardly audible beneath the fabric of the cloak. Snape snapped out of his memories immediately, his sympathetic tone once again switching to it’s usual hard potion master drawl.

“As a professor I do not condone revenge between students of any kind,” Snape paused and Harry watched a sparkle of knowledge flicker into the wizards onyx eyes. “but should you choose to stand up for yourself and not let them walk all over you, I might perhaps loose all knowledge that this conversation ever took place.” Harry smiled brightly behind the cloak as he stared up at Snape who looked rather surreal sat on his stool, in nothing but his night things. “As for your other problem Potter, I believe I’ve told you already that it’s more than natural not to have a reaction to members of the opposite sex.” Harry sighed and nodded, having remembered Snape’s earlier comments regarding his embarrassing situation.

“What am I supposed to do then? It won’t…..” Harry paused, as he nervously twitched between the heavy weights of Snape’s thick cloak. “…. it won’t work at all, not since…” Again Harry stopped this time blushing guiltily at the memory of what he’d tried to do in the bathroom before Snape had found him and saved his life. “Well not since the bathroom incident.” Harry trailed off watching as Snape narrowed his gaze at him in concentration before rolling his eyes and tutting loudly.

“If you haven’t figured it out yet Mr. Potter, you’re not worthy of having a penis.” Harry knew that tone of voice, Snape’s familiar snarky potion master’s sharp tongue had returned with the elder wizards waning patience. “I’m not in the habit of teaching little boys how to look after themselves, but for the sake of my sanity and not having to come traipsing down here every night because you’ve broken my wards I’ll help you this once.” Harry sank down lower into Snape’s cloak instinctively preparing for a lecture. “Stand up.” The command was sharp and left no room to be ignored. Harry gingerly rose to his feet clutching at Snape’s overly large cloak to hide his nakedness. “Come here.” Snape pointed to the floor space just in front of his knees and Harry dutifully followed the instruction to come to a stand still in front of his potion’s professor. Harry didn’t look up from the floor being quite unaccustomed to standing this close to his potion’s professor. “Close your eyes.” Harry flickered his gaze up at Snape in tentative curiosity, before closing his eyes completely at Snape’s irritated scowl. “Good, now lick your lips.” Harry licked his lips, his eyes still tightly closed. There was a brief pause of silence after Harry had followed the last instruction, but just as he was going to open his eyes to see what Snape was doing, a warm soft brush of lips against his own made his breath catch in his throat and made his body freeze rigid.

The kiss was soft and undemanding, the gentle movement of the lips against his own just enough to suggest they were even there. Harry didn’t know what to do, his brain not registering that it was his hated, greasy potion masters lips that were touching his own in the most intimate kiss he’d ever experienced. The soft kiss lasted no more than a couple of seconds before instinct kicked in and Harry parted his lips and let Snape’s tongue dart inside. Harry felt weak, his knees threatening to crumble beneath him as the insistent and skilled tongue of the professor explored his mouth. At length Snape broke the kiss leaving Harry breathless, his moist lips parted, his body still frozen and his eyes still closed.

Nothing.

Harry’s brain had totally shut down, and nothing seemed to exist other than the taste of Snape lingering on his lips, and of the man’s thick woolen cloak engulfing his body like a warm glove.

“Judging from that, I do believe you should have worked it out by now.” Harry’s eyes flew open the instant Snape’s voice registered in his brain. Glancing down Harry followed Snape’s gaze to his lap, where Snape’s cloak had parted revealing Harry’s very naked, very hard cock poking out from between the folds of the cloak. Harry’s face exploded in embarrassed fire as he spun around away from Snape, clutching at the cloak to hide himself yet again. Harry listened as Snape stood up from the stool, gasping a little at having been sitting in the cold for too long.

“You may borrow my cloak to return to your dorms Mr. Potter, I will expect it be returned to me in pristine condition.” Harry didn’t bother turning around from where he was facing the opposite wall to Snape, as he heard the potion masters boots on the floor as he stepped out of the store cupboard and left in silence. Harry sighed heavily when he heard the door of the classroom close, signaling that he was alone at last. Harry had no idea what had just happened, it might have seemed like a dream if the throb of his cock between his legs hadn’t been all to real. What Harry did know though was what Snape’s message had been.

Revenge & Queer.

Two things Harry had never considered before. One was relatively easily accepted but the other would take some time to come to terms with. Knowing it was late, and assuming that by now everyone had gone to bed, even the partygoers who’d caused him so much grief Harry considered it safe to return to his dorm. Wrapping Snape’s cloak tighter around him Harry shuffled from the classroom all the way up to his dorm. His house mates were asleep when Harry arrived up in the Gryffindor tower, and Harry took his time pulling on his pajama’s before crawling into the safety of his curtained bed, Snape’s cloak laid across his bed spread like a second warm, nice scented blanket.

TBC>>>>