Paper Wings
Authors notes
This is a little one shot I wrote after being given the prompt 'Paper Wings' by my friend 'NyxtheWolf' :)
I feel this could be expanded into more than a one shot but I'm not sure if continuing it would take away from its simplicity, so it's up to you all to decide :)
Thanks to 'Nyxthewolf' for Beta-ing, you make me posting my stories possible :)
Disclaimer
I don't own any of the Harry Potter series, all the glory belongs to and I am making no profit from this fan fiction, it's for entertainment purposes only.
Snape watched Harry go into the room of requirement one evening, but didn't reprimand him. Harry always had his reasons for being secretive and they were usually honourable. Though this had never stopped Severus from disciplining the boy before, there was something about the way Harry looked drained when entering the room and relaxed when he left that intrigued the older man, and made him return the following evening.
Hidden behind one of the grand marble pillars, Snape knew he shouldn't really be watching Harry - the war was over, he had no obligation to protect the boy but there he stood.
He'd watch every evening as Harry would walk with a knowing stride to the stone wall, close his eyes and with an absent smile that made Snape's heart stutter (much to his horror) and open the door that had just appeared before him. Then he'd wait to see him leave, his whole countenance more relaxed.
What was he doing in there?
That thought plagued Snape night after night, slowly gnawing away at his reserve, it was this that drove Snape to try and enter Harry's room of requirement six months after he'd seen him enter the room for the first night.
So one particularly frosty night Severus stood behind the pillar until Harry left the room looking particularly relaxed and content. Snape then waited another fifteen minutes, watching his breath mist and fade until he was sure Harry was a safe distance away before he moved and stood in front of the grand stone wall and took a breath.
He thought about Harry, the room Harry entered and much to his surprise the stones moved almost instantly and made way from a large and ornate oak door. Snape checked his surroundings, then wearily pushed open the door, not quite sure if he was ready to see whatever it was Harry visited every night.
But Snape completely forgot himself as he entered the room, as a gasp left his lips and his mouth remained agape as he was presented with a very simple room. Its walls where mirrored, as was the ceiling, though it was not the slightly rusting mirrors that caught Snape so off guard.
It was the hundreds, maybe thousands of paper cranes levitating seamlessly at various heights all around the room, some gently rocking against a small breeze. Snape took a step forward and with an already outstretched hand he gently stroked a wing of one of the cranes and it span gently.
He took a few more careful steps into the field of enchanted paper birds and watched as they turned and gently bobbed on the invisible water. They varied in height from just above Snape's knee right to the ceiling, the mirrors causing the cranes to look endless.
'You're not supposed to be in here' Harry's voice said. It wasn't angry or hurt, it was just a statement. Snape didn't bother to turn around, he knew he'd been caught which in any other circumstance he would have berated himself for.
'What is all of this?' he asked, walking through the sea of paper winged birds, forgetting the formal façade that he still kept after the war though there was no need, it was more of a habit now.
'There is an old Japanese legend, that a man who makes a thousand paper cranes will be granted one wish.' He said his voice calm though there was something tender and raw beneath it.
'What did you wish for?' Snape said, not even trying to conceal amazement. Harry never failed to surprise him, no matter how much Snape thought he knew him, no matter how long he studied him and thought he understood Harry; he always had some new depth he'd failed to see, and Merlin how it infuriated and charmed him.
When he was met with silence he turned to the door where he knew Harry had been, and was shocked to find Harry standing only millimetres from himself. Harry had grown, now only a few inches shorter than Snape, his green eyes looked straight into Snape's obsidian ones.
Snape's breath hitched and Harry leant up onto the balls of his feet. He could feel his breath on his lips and the heat of his skin as a tingling sensation all across his body, his pulse was so loud he felt like Harry could hear it.
'This.' Harry whispered.
The kiss was small and chaste but passionate. Snape closed his eyes and leaned into the kiss unconsciously, needing more.
Then after only a few moments Harry pulled away and was gone, leaving Snape alone in the clouds of paper wings and a yearning hope that tomorrow's evening would arrive with haste.
I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it, it was a really pleasant story to write :)
Also if you'd like more of this story to be written, let me know, if there is enough people I'll certainly write if for you :)
Please review, good or bad, it makes my day :)
Read long and prosper,
RandomReggie
:)
