Okay, so I was HIGHLY inspired by the movie "Leon" from 1993 for this fanfiction. If ANYONE knows the movie. Let me know via review, and if you felt I caught the mood.
The war should have been his last day on earth. Severus Snape had firmly believed that he would die that day. But he hadn't. Potter, the savior of the day had someone managed to snatch him from the claws of death. Well, technically it had been Poppey that had healed him. But Potter was the one that had brought him to her, and that, sadly enough, also counted.
So after months of recovering, learning how to speak, eat, and even walk, Severus thought the time of a peaceful life would start, however peaceful his life could be. He would return to Snape Manor, he'd fix it up just as it used to be, when his mother's parents had lived in it. He knew it only from pictures his mother had shown him when he was a child. She had grown up happy. Maybe he could be happy there too.
He would simply lay back, work on his potions, maybe improve some, or even come up with completely new ones all together. Yes, it seemed as if life was finally working out for him. If it hadn't been for one, single thing.
Green eyes were looking into his, hair a mess, and that impish grin that made Severus want to slam the door shut immediately. Especially because of the suitcases standing on his porch.
"The answer." He snarled quietly, putting as much hate and disdain he could into his voice. "Is no."
"I'm sorry Sir, I'm not taking no for an answer." The boy, because to him he was still very much a boy, said. "Now, you can let me in, and we can do this the easy way. Or I'll just have to sit here until you change your mind."
"And what makes you think that I will not leave you out here until winter comes and you freeze to death?" Severus asked, teeth bared as he looked the teen up and down. Couldn't he for once in his fucking life have a break?
"Well, first of all, I wouldn't freeze. I'm a wizard remember? I can help myself. And second. You saved my sorry ass countless times before, and I know you're lying when you're saying you did it so I could kill Snake-face." Harry shrugged, running a hand through his messy hair, something James had also done, making it even more untidy. And Severus loathed the gesture in itself almost as much as he loathed the person that had done it.
"And why is that, Mr. Potter?" He spoke the boys name with deadly precision, as if it was painful to even form his name on his tongue, and he had to force himself to say it.
"Because you saved me for my mother. You don't want me dead. You want me to lead a happy life. And that happy life is waiting for me, right here. So if you could just step aside, I could pick a room."
Somehow, the brat had convinced him to step aside. And they had since then been living together. How, or even why the boy had been so adamant about sharing living space was beyond him.
Given, during his recovery, Potter and he had come to some kind of understanding. He wouldn't call them friends, but they were no longer enemies either. Severus had found respect for the young man in his heart. He would have sacrificed himself, just like that, for his friends, his family. And Severus knew just to well what 'sacrifice' meant. He had been willing to sacrifice everything, his life, to get back the man that had taken the one person he loved from him.
Severus had thought back to the time, when he himself was about Harry's age. He had just joined the death eaters, just accepted the mark, and was looking forward eagerly to his future. His only rule, unwritten and yet adhered to by him at all times, was simple. No women, no children.
And he had always stuck to those rules. Always, even when he had been a death eater at heart. He had never raised his wand against a woman, or a child. Old fashioned, some would even say chauvinistic, maybe, but it was his rule. By giving Voldemort the prophecy, he had broke that rule. Lilly Evan, because he refused to think of her as a Potter, had died. And then, someone had tried to kill her 1 year old son. It was then that Severus knew what he had done. And what he had gotten himself into.
And now, said child had 'grown up', and was gallivanting about his, Snape's, house as if it was natural for him to be there. Standing up to make breakfast, and then, or so it at least seemed to him, bother Severus until the potion master flew off the handle and threw the boy out of his lab.
What exactly Potter did after that, he didn't know, and he really didn't care. As long as the boy stayed out of his way, his life was fine.
Harry had never really asked for anything in his life. At least not that he could remember. Of course, when Sirius had died, he had begged for him to come back to life, just as he had after losing anyone else. But he had never asked for much.
He had asked for the truth many times, and now that the war was over, after Dumbledore's plan had unfolded, he realized how little of it he had been given until the very end.
But no, Harry didn't think of himself as an especially selfish, or self-centered person.
Months had passed, and the dust had somewhat settled. And the question "What now?" had been his frequent companion where ever he got. He had of course helped hunt down the last few death eater that had survived the war, and escaped the auror's. But now, all the bad men that had terrorized their world were dead, or behind bars. So what was the One who lived going to do?
He could have gone back to school with Hermione. Do his NEWT's. Stay at the one place that had been home to him more than any other place ever was. He could have enjoyed being a student for a little longer, before going off into the 'real world'.
He could have joined Ron, who was immediately accepted into the auror training camp, and was soon to be a fully trained auror, working for the Ministry of Magic. Harry would have done well, he knew. After all, hunting down a dark wizard wasn't exactly something new.
Both options hadn't been very appealing, and neither had the last been. He had been offered a position as a professional seeker. He could have done the one thing he really loved, play Quidditch, and earn a lot of money doing so. Not that he needed it, obviously.
But it would have been a bonus.
And yet, after reviewing all of those possibilities, and going through a hundred more, less obvious things he could do, decided that nothing would do.
Nothing but this.
And this, meant moving in with Severus Snape (with or without his consent), and get to know the man that had loved his mother, that had been her friend, that had saved his life more times than he could count. Get to know the man under the hard exterior.
His mother must have seen something in Severus that was by now buried deep within the scarred man. And Harry wanted to see exactly that, wanted to break through that hard shell and see if Severus had an at least semi-soft core.
He wanted to see what his mother saw. Because whatever it had been, it had kept Lily around for years, despite Snape's already venomous attitude.
Ron and Hermione had once asked him why he needed this so badly, why he wanted to spend time with a man that was so bitter that he could not forget the past. Could not forgive mistakes made, against or by himself.
Harry hadn't answered them that day. Lying by omission.
The lone reason for all of this, for him pushing himself into the wizards life, forcing Severus to interact with him, and being, as Severus called it, a brat was fore the sole reason that he was utterly, and undeniably in love with this man.
At first he hadn't believed it either. Had denied that feeling of want, and warmth in his stomach as he stood next to the comatose form of Severus Snape. Denied the intangible joy he had felt when the man had woken, and looked him straight in the eye. Pushed away the rush whenever his fingers would brush against the older man's hand when he sat at his bed, or handed him a potion Poppey wanted Severus to take.
It had taken months for him to even admit that he might be attracted to men. After all, he had only ever been with women. But after a while, he simply could not run from his feelings any longer. This had to be done, he had to at least try to get closer to this impossible man.
And so, a few weeks after Severus had disappeared from St. Mungo's, Harry had stood at his door and demanded to be let in. Repeatedly. And after hours, he had finally worn the raven haired man down. He had let the younger man in, although he had returned to his lab immediately.
The Gryffindor had not expected anything else from the Slytherin, and so he had walked through the house on his own, until he had finally found a bedroom that he liked and, by total coincidence, was right across from Severus bedroom.
Of course, the Potion Master had protested at this, and Harry had been afraid Severus might blow a vein in his head he was so upset, but he had seen it through, and he had kept his room.
And now that he had finally made his goal, and lived with Severus, he would have to be less aggressive, and could ease the stoic man into.. well, whatever they would end up being.
He had always been an optimist, and he fully intended to try and court Severus, and eventually be with him romantically. But if that didn't work out, if he really wasn't what the older man wanted in a partner, then he would settle for friends.
But until Severus had fully rejected him, he was out to get this man to notice him, not as a student, and not as Lily's and James' son. But as Harry.
Just Harry.