Title: To Love

Author: Serene Tragedy

Rating: M or NY-17.

Word Count: Under 50k I hope

Summary: Voldemort is gone and Harry has a second chance to complete his education, but will he always have a second chance? Severus almost slipped away from him last time, scaring Harry into a state he did not even know existed. SS/HP Slash.

A/N: Thank you, as always, to HEPL (.com/group/ahouseelfinthepotionslab) for letting me vent and bitch through my process of writing (which you know will be coming here soon when I really start on this fic) – you guys are amazing and can never be replaced. And as of present, I have no beta for this fic. PM me if you are interested.

Chapter 1 – Of Pearls and Men

A bubbling serenade echoed off the many cauldrons, sounding as an orchestra, directed by an unseen man or woman, while the black pool in front of a certain young man swirled and entranced. Bringing forth the thoughts and images of something else, deep and endless, though he could not quite place what it was. His knees went weak when a baritone voice, carried on a warm breath, grazed his ear.

"Daydreaming Mr. Potter? Or are you honestly that enthralled by this particular potion?" Severus smirked, "I do say that it would be a first. Though I cannot fathom why it would be this particular brew."

Harry took in a shaky breath, "The color, sir."

"Hmm… black? And here I thought you would go to goo with red."

The younger wizard shut his eyes, but nonetheless hung his head – why Ginny had chose that particular moment was beyond his reasoning. He had called it off with the chit almost three years prier, but as he walked out of the forest, victorious from defeating the Dark Lord and supporting a seriously injured Severus Snape back to Hogwarts, she had ran up to him, nearly knocking Severus over. She pulled Harry down and kissed him full on the mouth, and then started rambling on about how she simply could not wait to be back with him and all the wonderful things they could finally do. The young man had nearly gagged right in front of her.

Severus had groaned and Harry was quickly back at his side. The older wizard forcefully pushing him off, declaring that he was perfectly able to walk, and inquired that didn't he have something else more important to be doing – indicating to the pouting child staring curiously at the two.

Harry had let him walk away, but not before saying, "She could never take your place."

Severus had momentarily froze, but did not turn back.

Severus sighed behind him, "Honestly Potter, perhaps if you had an attention span longer than that of a pixie, you would actually manage to not botch every potion you attempt."

Harry's head snapped up, and peering over his cauldron, he groaned at what he saw. While he was dawdling in the past, he had forgotten to add the crushed fly eyes, thus his own potion now rapidly transforming from the pearlesque black, to a dingy colour of yellowish brown.

Fuck… He had questioned himself on more than one occasion as to whether Sever – Snape, took pleasure in torturing him. He really would not be surprised.

"Detention Potter, 8 o'clock sharp. You will stay here until you get the potion right."

Just bloody brilliant, Harry thought. Wonder how I'll make an arse of myself tonight.

Right, so this probably will not be updated anytime soon, just so's you know. It was a random thought that popped into my head and this is as far as it got, but it would not let me get any farther on my other fic, For Love and Loss & Finding it Again, until I met its demands.

FLLFA will probably start being posted here in the next month. I have about half of it done, but I would like to be a bit farther if possible. Also, before I continue on this fic, To Love, I have at least two others I must complete – a requested HP zombie fic, and the other one on here, Four Years. I will also have various one shots up here in a few weeks.

So, anything you would like to see in the particular fic? Anywhere you would like it to go? I am open to suggestions, as seeing I don't even have a proper outline yet.

Would love reviews, but I won't demand them – hits are enough for me =)