Hello, my name is Crimson Regret and my first fic as some of you may be familiar with is Crimson Regret, a story about Severus and Harry battling some creature problems. Well don't worry I am intending to finish Crimson Regret but as it only has one chapter left I thought I would get a head start on my next story.

Disclaimer: I have no claim over the characters in this story for they are J.K. Rowlings as I'm sure you all know, just the circumstances I put them in.

Enjoy!


I reach but I feel only air at night.

Harry raised his hand and knocked nervously on his most dreaded professors door.

Smoothing back the ebony strands that hung before his eyes and putting on what he hoped was his most amicable expression he waited for him to answer.

After a moment the door swung open and the sallow face of professor Severus Snape appeared around the darkened, panelled wood of the door.

"Potter," He sneered at him. "To what do I owe this somewhat doubtful pleasure?"

"Good evening Professor Snape, I was just wondering if perhaps you would allow me to speak with you for a few minutes, its very important."

"And what do you call what we are doing now Potter? Grunting like pigs I suppose, that is the baser language you students tend to communicate in, is it not?"

Harry gritted his teeth through his smile, "I would say that at least one of us is speaking like a civilised human being professor, but I would feel more comfortable if what I have to say to you is said in the privacy of your office and not in the decidedly open hallway."

A flash of grudging respect lit the potion master's dark eyes before the door slid open a little wider and he was nodded in.

Following the billowing robes of his teacher, Harry stepped in and closed the door with a quiet click behind him.

Snape had already settled himself behind his desk as Harry had done this, and now waved him forward impatiently with a rather bedraggled looking feather quill.

"Come on Potter I haven't got all day!"

Harry hurried forward to seat himself in the chair on the side of the desk nearest to him. It was neither plush or at all comfortable, in fact Harry wouldn't have been surprised if Snape hadn't deliberately planned it this way so as to make his guests feel as uncomfortable as possible, that is to say if he had any, other than students of course.

The potions master looked up from his fevered scribbling at this point long enough to look at Harry beadily, "Well?"

"Oh, um, yes, err Professor Dumbledore thinks it wise for me to start up-"

He was interrupted by an abrupt knock on the door.

With a sigh his professor threw down his quill and stalked to the door, "Yes!"

Harry took a few seconds to feel sorry for the hapless student behind the door before taking the chance to peruse his surroundings.

Surprisingly the office was not as plain as he thought it might have been.

The only objects of furniture were the rickety desk and chairs and one lone shelf adorning the wall to his right. Upon the shelf were several jars filled with grotesque sludge coloured objects and a broken a sneak-a-scope.

Across about one third of the floor a rather plush but liberally ink stained dark green carpet lay, covering the cold flagstones from view and making ones feet feel rather pampered.

From his perusal of the floor Harry's glittering green eyes trailed to the desk top itself.

An obviously recently used silver tea set upon an ornately adorned silver tray stood wonkily off to one side, whilst on the other sat a haphazardly positioned in-tray piled high with parchments of all sizes and next to this a golden lamp with a very bright flame burning at its centre.

But what really caught Harry's eye, was a silver photo frame that he could only just see the back of around a jutting piece of parchment from the in-tray.

Glancing toward the door where his professor was still conversing quietly with whomever it was, Harry very slowly stretched out his arm and touched a single fingertip to the corner of the frame.

Nudging it ever so gently he managed to turn it so that he could see the photo that lay within the frame, but before he could even glance at it properly, it was snatched out of his hands and his knuckles left smarting on the desk.

"What do you want Potter!"

"Professor Dumbledore wishes me to apologise for the incident with the pensive, which I do unreservedly, and…respectfully to ask if you would consider continuing my occlumency lessons?"

There wasn't even a moments pause,

"Absolutely not!"

"But Professor-"

"But nothing Potter! Why on earth should I even consider taking you on for private tutor ledge again when you pry into my personal life every time my back is turned? Imagine what you could try if I actually gave you a reason to be in my office every week? Perhaps a quick root through my drawers hmm? Another dive into my pensive? Or even an attempt at breaking into my private quarters, wouldn't that be just your style Potter?"

Harry licked his lips desperately, "No professor I would never-"

"Oh but you would! I know you would because you just can't help yourself, you're a nosey and inquisitive little sneak and no, I've made up my mind, I will not teach you occlumency again."

Here Snape leaned forward over the desk, his hands planted deliberately just in front of Harry.

"Now get out!"


Harry trudged up the hall to Dumbledore's office, defeated and dejected. Dumbledore had said that he had enough confidence in Harry's abilities that he would be able to persuade Professor Snape into consenting to giving him occlumency lessons again and Harry couldn't help thinking that he was going to be bitterly disappointed when he told him he hadn't been able to do it.

Almost whispering the password to the Gargoyle he stepped onto the moving staircase and stared sulkily at the wall, his hands in his pockets and his expression glum.

Once he reached the top stair he stepped up to the door and knocked once.

"Come."

Opening the door Harry kicked it carelessly shut behind him and waited for the Headmaster to acknowledge him.

Not long after Dumbledore lifted his head from where he was staring at one of the puffing objects on his desk in bemusement and started when he saw Harry.

"Harry? Did you not receive my owl this morning at breakfast?"

"No sir, I wasn't at breakfast because I had a rather bad nightmare last night and I'm afraid I overslept."

"Oh, well I'm afraid I must-"

The Headmaster was cut off abruptly as a flustered third year shot through the door.

"P-Proffesor Dumbledore," He got out breathlessly, "Professor Sprout requires your immediate assistance in greenhouse four, one of the man eating geraniums has got a hold of Jeremy Bumpkin!"

Dumbledore was on his feet in an instant, "I'm on my way, Harry-" Here he broke off helplessly, "Oh…you better have a seat." He said waving a hand vaguely at his desk, but before he left he looked at Harry piercingly, "But do NOT touch anything! And I do mean ANYTHING!"

With that he took off after the third year pupil, shutting the door with a snap behind him.

Harry stared bemusedly after him for a moment before going to sit in the chair before the Headmaster's desk, it was, admittedly, a lot more comfortable than Professor Snape's.

Perhaps, he thought staring absently at the contraption Dumbledore had been fiddling with earlier, it was best to delay the inevitable, he really didn't want to see Dumbledore's reaction when he told him of his failure to get Snape to agree to give him lessons.

Realising what he was staring at, his eyes narrowed and he stared at the object, what WAS that?

Almost involuntarily, after all Professor Dumbledore had expressed a particular wish for him not to touch anything, his hand reached out and he grasped the object tentatively in his fingers.

After the blinding light that resulted faded, there was nothing left upon the chair opposite the Headmaster's desk, save for that blasted instrument.


That evening one very irate Potions Professor could be found in that self same seat.

"You mean to tell me that you sent him a letter telling him in no uncertain terms not to visit you today, and when he didn't receive it because…as is his want, he slept in late, you told him not to TOUCH anything because you had to leave the room?"

Dumbledore sighed dejectedly and ran a hand through his beard in a somewhat guilty gesture.

"I can only assume it is fate working to overrule our demands Severus-"

Snape was on his feet in an instant, "Fate! FATE! No old man I can assure you that it is YOU who is overruling MY demands! You KNEW Potter's penchant for prying and yet you still left him ALONE with the time piece sitting directly opposite him, and as for your letter, well that was ambiguous for a start! Even if he HAD received it you know how picky he is about opening his mail, ever since that nasty envelope of bubotuber puss that injured Miss Granger's hands last year!"

Turning his robes swirled as he paced angrily, kicking the chair out of his way now and then.

"Well there's nothing for it, you're going to have to go and retrieve him!" He said stopping his furious pacing to stare keenly at the Headmaster.

The old man shook his head apologetically, "There isn't a chance that my younger self won't see me and you know the penalty I will face should that sort of encounter take place. No I am afraid that we shall have to let events take their course, you must accept this Severus."

A moment later a frightened first year Hufflepuff sped down the stairs outside the Headmaster's office after hearing an outraged scream followed by a very loud crash inside it.


Well there you have it, In future chapter's WILL be longer I promise as this is only the introduction really. Feedback would be VERY much appreciated and I hope you are looking forward to an update.