Flying too Far

DISCLAIMER – All characters and the Hogwarts world belong to JK Rowling. This interaction is just a little fancy of mine.

The newspaper, new enough to be still crisp, snapped downwards and from behind it, the face of the Potions Master glowered at two boys who stood uncertainly before him. Slowly he lowered the paper, its enchanted pictures moving in dramatic scenes. Both boys averted their eyes. On the desk between them and their teacher the images of the flying car continued to soar rather fast and unsteadily across London skies.

"You were seen!"

The charge was spoken in a low growl. Ron Weasley, the tallest of the boys gulped, opened his mouth to say something, closed it again as the coal black eyes of Severus Snape fell on him. He lapsed into a hopeless silence, seeing the white hot blaze of anger in the fierce stare.

"By no less than seven muggles. Flying over London in a vintage car! Doesn't your father work for the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Department, Mr. Weasley?" Snape skewered Ron and guilt shifted low and deep in Harry's stomach. Ron's face flushed and Harry swallowed, thinking of how kind Ron's Mum and Dad had been to him during the holidays. It made him feel awful to think that Mr. Weasley might get in trouble in work over something they had done.

Ron nodded and the older man's lips twisted in a mirthless sneer.

"Well, you will have made him very proud."

"And you, Mr. Potter. I suppose anyone can come to school on the Hogwarts Express. Not you. Not famous Harry Potter. You elected to make an entrance as befits your celebrity, I suppose. Your rampage not only caused mayhem in London but you also managed to do serious damage to a very valuable Whomping Willow that has stood on these grounds for decades!"

As he spoke, the Potions Master rose to his feet, slowly, lethally, like a snake preparing for the strike.

Harry's temper flared.

"I think it did more damage to us!" he said in a near undertone but Snape heard and he brought his gaze to the boy.

"Silence!" he roared and Harry bit his lip. It was a mistake to goad Snape, especially now, when his fury filled the room like fumes of a deadly acid.

At that moment a rapping knock at the door brought three sets of eyes to the entrance as the darkly clad Deputy Headmistress stepped into the room.

Professor McGonagall strode towards them, her lips set in a straight line, her face drawn in severe lines. She looked almost as formidable as Snape. Almost.

"Mister Weasley! Mister Potter! Whatever were you thinking? It's a miracle you weren't killed!" she said, the words snapped out sharply as she glared at them from behind her rounded spectacles.

"Professor McGonagall, we had to do it! We were stuck! Something went wrong with the barrier. We couldn't get through!" Ron spluttered.

"Why did you not simply wait by the car? If all else failed, the alarm would be raised when neither of you arrived at the school. Profesor Dumbledore would have sent someone to fetch you immediately."

Both boys dropped their heads. Put like that, it all sounded so logical. Harry felt rather stupid now that they had not done just that.

"We didn't think, Professor," he admitted quietly.

"No, I don't suppose you did!" the Head of Gryffindor levelled at them, unimpressed.

"Mr. Weasley, you will accompany me now," she made to usher Ron out before her.

"Are we going to be expelled?" Ron's look of dismay was mirrored on Harry's face.

The stern expression on the witch's face mellowed slightly.

"Not tonight. But what you have done is very serious. I will be writing to your parents to inform them of what has happened. And I will notify the both of you tomorrow of the detention you will serve."

Her eyes flitted from one to the other, her frowning scrutiny a reprimand in itself.

"Mr. Weasley."

With a gesture of her hand, she indicated the open doorway and this time, Ron complied and walked dejectedly before her onto the corridor and out of Harry's sight.

"Severus, I will leave you to deal with your ward. Mr. Potter, you will receive my note tomorrow."

She met Snape's shadowed eyes and then, she had turned on her heel and with nothing more than a rustle of her robes, she was gone.

Silence descended like a concrete block into the room. The temperature seemed to drop with it and Harry imagined that he could almost see his breath in front of his face. The news that he was being placed in the guardianship of Professor Snape had come to him just a few days ago. His pleasant holiday at the Burrow with Ron's family had been instantly tarnished, as though the Headmaster's owl had brought some kind of toxin instead of a letter.

Harry had refused to believe it, he had rejected Ron's sympathetic outrage on his behalf and he had resolved that upon his return to Hogwarts, he would make Professor Dumbledore see that this was not only a bad idea but in all likelihood, one that would prove fatal to him. Now, it looked like he was not going to live long enough even for that. His very first encounter with Snape as his guardian was on course to end with his murder.

"Do you have nothing to say for yourself?" the Professor asked, reminding Harry of an executioner asking for last words.

"As if you are going to listen! Why don't you just expel me and get it over with?" Harry looked into the unfathomable eyes, not bothering to disguise his hostility.

"Don't tempt me."

"I bet you are loving this! Your chance to get rid of me for once and for all and there's nothing to stop you now!"

Harry heard the words explode from his mouth and he knew it was foolish to enrage the older man further but he could not stop. Snape was looking at him, his lips curled disdainfully, his expression almost bored. Harry wanted to rock that composure.

He nearly took a step in retreat when Snape moved but caught himself in time. He squared his shoulders and kept his eyes on the man in the midnight robes but the Professor made no attempt to touch him. Instead, he came around his desk, walking languidly, crossing the length of the room and for a second, Harry wondered if Snape had dismissed him. He was opening drawers in the ancient cabinet against the far wall and moving things around and seemed to have forgotten that Harry altogether.

This should have brought relief, only moments before, Harry was sure that the man was going to stun him with some blood curdling hex. Instead, Harry felt himself grow angrier. Snape couldn't even be bothered to look at him, he was acting like Harry wasn't even there.

"You hate me, I know you do! You are enjoying this, dragging it out! At last, you have the power to kick me out of here. I don't know what you said to Professor Dumbledore but it worked. So just do your worst. I don't care!" Harry yelled and still, Snape kept his back to him.

Harry was breathing hard, the anger within him, the outburst, it made his chest heave but his guardian's demeanour was unhurried, his concentration on whatever he was doing was not so much as dented by Harry's display of temper.

He walked to the side of the room, his steps deliberate, beating out a rythym that was as cold and stark as the gloomy dungeon room.

Resentfully, Harry watched him from beneath his fringe. Snape lifted and carried a chair from the wall. He laid something on the floor. All the time, his face was averted, his silence enduring.

Then, a prickle of unease sizzled uncomfortably on Harry's skin. Suspicion penetrated the glaze of his fury and he had the sense that he did not want to be here anymore. He lifted his face to glance at the door and though Snape was still not looking at him, he seemed to read his mind.

"Take one step and I will stun you on the spot."

Then, the Professor was crossing the floor, closing the distance between boy and man and whatever Harry might have been thinking of doing, the chance had evaporated.

"Place your wand on the desk and give your glasses to me," Snape growled.

"What? Why?"

"Now," the older wizard glared at him and Harry's mouth went dry.

"If you want my wand, you will have to take it from me," Harry lifted his chin and with great difficulty, he met the flinty stare of his dark guardian.

"Mr. Potter. There are two ways we can do this. You can continue to act the arrogant brat with more guts than sense. Or you can show the maturity of accepting the consequences of actions that were stupid and irresponsible. Obviously, I would recommend the latter," Snape arched one brow.

Then he leaned a little closer to the boy so that his nose was almost touching Harry's. He locked the emerald eyes to his and Harry felt like he had fallen into a cavern, deep and black.

"But trust me, you will not alter the course of what is about to happen."

Snape paused. Stepped back, waiting.

Harry looked up into his guardian's face, set and stern and resolute.

Without a word, he turned and walked to the desk, slipped his wand from its resting place in his sleeve and set it carefully on the walnut surface. Somehow managing to keep his steps steady, even though his knees seemed to have disolved into water, he walked back to stand before Snape.

He lifted his glasses from his face and held his hand outward. Snape took the framed spectacles from Harry's frozen fingers, folded them and slipped them into the breast pocket of his waistcoat.

Harry's jaw clenched. He would be damned if he would betray the fear he was feeling to this most hated of teachers. Whatever this treacherous bat of the dungeon had in store for him, Harry was not going to give Snape the satisfaction of seeing him cowed.

Still, he stiffened when the Potions Master reached out a slim hand and took hold of his arm in a surprisingly strong grip. Snape gave him an impatient tug.

"Do not fight me. There is nothing to be gained. The spanking you are about to get is richly deserved and certainly, long overdue!"

Harry heard the words and was jolted still. Whatever he had been expecting Snape to do, it was not this.

"Stop! Wait! You think you are going to beat me up? Get off!" Harry tried to pull free but the man's grip held him like a vice.

"You've gone mad! You'll get sacked. Whatever you did to make Professor Dumbledore agree to make you my guardian, it won't do you much good when he finds out you're hitting students," Harry panted.

The older wizard spun on his heel and there was a terrifying anger on his face when he looked at Harry.

"Let me dispel one little myth you seem to be nursing. I did nothing to make the Headmaster place you in my charge. In fact, it took a great deal of persuasion on his part to procure my agreement," Snape sneered.

His tone indicated that the persuasion involved may have been something more like the Cruciatus curse.

"But I did have one condition of my own. Just one. My ward, mine to deal with as I see fit. And the first thing that we are going to address is this mind numbing conceit of yours. Have you stopped to listen to yourself? Every word out of your mouth is a homage to yourself. The world does not revolve around you, Harry Potter and my sole preoccupation in this life is not centred on you," Snape gave Harry a bone rattling shake.

"Plotting your destruction? Wringing my hands in anticipation of throwing you out? Merlin give me patience! I have a life of my own, a busy one!"

"This is not about me. This is about an idiot boy who risked the security of our entire world for an evening of reckless adventure. A spoiled child who is seeking to justify his actions so that none of the reponsibility rests with him. A dunderhead who will learn that this is not acceptable from one aspiring to be a wizard."

Every word was a lash and Harry would have done almost anything to keep the man from seeing the tears rise in his eyes.

As though reading his mind, the Professor tore his furious eyes from Harry and with one relentless tug, he had brought him to the chair he had lifted tp the centre of the floor a moment before.

The tall wizard lowered himself into it with fluid grace and before Harry drew his next breath, he was lying face down across the man's lap.

It was a supreme effort of will for Harry to choke back the plea that rose in his throat. Instead he bent his head and his hands fisted as Snape issued a swift but merciless spanking.

"I'm sorry. I am sorry!" the ragged cry left his throat but Harry wasn't sure if the words were lost in the sobs that he could not stop.

And then, it was over but for all that, Harry's breath was short, his chest seemed to be on fire and his face was wet from tears when he felt himself set back on his feet.

Snape turned and with a flick of his wrist, the ruler he had in his hand floated back into a drawer that magically opened in the cabinet by the wall.

Harry lifted his arm to drag a sleeve over the tears that continued to flow down his face, salty on his lips, cloudy in his eyes. Instead, a crisp linen square was pressed into his palm.

He kept his face down as he dabbed at the tears and fought to restore his control. His shoulders shook as the sobs that refused to abate betrayed him. Shame scalded him and he felt childish and foolish and he wished fervently that the ground would just open and swallow him so that he could be spared having Severus Snape witness his humiliation.

A hand reached for him and cupped his damp cheek, a gesture of unexpected tenderness.

"It is done. You will be alright."

There was something in the way that Snape was not mocking him, nor was he talking to him as though Harry was a baby but the words penetrated Harry's misery.

"You will never let me live this down," he sniffed.

"That you made a grave error of judgement this evening? We have just dealt with that. I repeat. It is done."

Snape moved and leaned against his desk, keeping his black eyes trained on Harry all the time.

"That you did not care for being punished? Who does? You have taken the consequences of your actions and that is not something I have any desire to belittle," his guardian sounded cool, self contained as ever.

But he was speaking the truth. Harry recognised that.

"It takes courage to do that, Mr. Potter and courage, I respect."

Snape reached behind him, straightened and approached Harry once more. He held out his hand and even with his vision blurred, Harry saw his wand was being returned to him. He took it and pocketed it. Snape reached a long fingered hand into his own pocket and withdrew Harry's glasses. These too he held out.

Taking them and straightening them on his nose, Harry stole a glance at his guardian. His face was still drawn in grim lines but he did not look quite so wrathful.

"We have a long way to go and if I am to speak the truth, I do not know if we can reach an accord. But you stood here and faced up to tonight's misconduct and I cannot ask for more than that. As far as I am concerned, it is past," Snape said.

Harry looked into his face and believed him.

"You may return to your dorm, I will have a house elf take you a tray later. You missed supper. You must be hungry. Then you sleep. Tomorrow, we will see how to proceed from there."

Harry was grateful to be dismissed and grateful too to be able to retreat to the privacy and comfort of his dorm. If Snape was affording him a chance to get his composure back in private, he did not say as much.

"Will Mr. Weasley get into trouble?"

At the doorway, Harry paused and looked back at his guardian.

"Nothing more than the short term embarrassment of having his colleagues know that he has produced yet another dare devil son."

"I'm sorry for the things I said to you. I am sorry for shouting," Harry said quietly.

"Goodnight, Mr. Potter."

Harry climbed the steps toward the entrance hall and the stairs to the Gryfinndor commonroom. Snape's handkerchief was still clutched in his hand. He felt odd, he should be raging against the idea of having Snape for a guardian. Just an hour ago, he would have preferred to be adopted by the Durselys than have to accept Severus Snape as a meaningful presence in his life.

He still did not like the idea, Snape terrified him but there was something else. The Potions Master had told him that he could respect courage. Harry respected courage in others too but seldom saw it in himself. Snape was last person he had expected to say otherwise.

Harry had his own doubts that they could reach an accord also but to his consternation, he found that he did not hate the Potions Master anymore. Snape could have expelled him. His punishment was horrid but it had not been unfair and Harry had to admit, it had been almost clinical.

It was not easy to believe but Snape had not pressed his advantage. Perhaps there was more to him than Harry had first believed and though he could not know for sure, Harry hoped.

He was back at Hogwarts, he was allowed to stay and he had someone to look out for him. New territory but Harry suddenly wanted to give it a try.