The True Face of Another

Thank you so much for your reviews last chapter! I realize it was just a teaser. But now the plot gets moving a bit! Let me know what you think!

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I do not own HP


Chapter 2: Settling In?

Feeling as if he were about to walk the plank, Harry knocked on Snape's office door at precisely the time the man had demanded. The door swung open and Harry jumped, looking reluctantly up to see the professor glaring at him darkly.

"I see you can listen to instructions when worded simply enough for a three-year-old," he allowed, his scowl suggesting he had been looking forward to laying into Harry for being late.

When Harry didn't respond save to drag his drunk and Hedwig's cage over the threshold, Snape glared before slamming and locking the office door wandlessly behind him. He then turned to a far wall and muttered something too quietly for Harry to hear.

Harry gaped when the far wall fell away into nothingness, but then chastised himself for still letting magic surprise him after all this time.

"Come along Potter," he snapped. "I haven't the time to waste on gormless brats."

Rolling his eyes, Harry dragged his belongings and followed behind the Professor down the revealed dimly-lit hallway. Snape placed his hand on the stone wall they eventually made it to, and it too melted away, revealing a living room furnished comfortably with earth tones-mostly tans, greens and browns. The walls were filled with books, but Harry noted quite a variety of muggle classics mixed in with texts on magic.

As this was completely unlike how he would imagine Snape's quarters to be furnished (certainly his would have a color scheme of black, silver and green with gothic-style lighting, gruesome potions ingredients, and a coffin thrown in for good measure), Harry found himself asking, "Where are we?"

"Potter, do you even have a single brain cell spare from quidditch?" an aristocratic voice drawled, and Harry jumped as he noticed Draco Malfoy lounging comfortably on a green couch, a book in hand. "Have you already forgotten with whom you're staying this summer?"

"So these are Snape's quarters?"

"Not what you imagined, Potter?" Snape asked, his silky tone full of malevolence.

Before Harry could respond, Snape directed his attention away from him, and addressed Draco in a very different tone-something Harry didn't fail to notice.

"Are you ready, Draco?"

"Sure, Uncle Sev. Most of my things are already there." Draco stood up and stretched and then moved to the floo.

Harry watched as Snape put a hand on the blond's shoulder in what looked to be a supportive gesture, and Harry found himself suddenly feeling like an interloper-an intruder on something private. Sure, Snape had always favored Malfoy, but Harry had had no idea they were so close. He hadn't known Snape could sound so…gentle. It really drove home the discrepancy in his and Draco's positions and Harry saw his summer darkening even further. This really would be just like the Dursleys-if not worse, for Draco was many times more cunning and intelligent than Dudley.

"If Prince Potter would deign to grace me with his attention…" Came a hiss from behind.

Harry suddenly found himself grabbed forcibly by the arm and then Snape was almost literally breathing down his neck. "Mark my words when I tell you I take no pleasure having you in my presence for any longer than is absolutely necessary. While in my home, you will display nothing but perfect decorum. You will be courteous to all that reside there-that includes Draco, myself and my servants. You will be on time to each meal or you will go without. You will do exactly as I tell you, exactly when I tell you. You will desist with your habit of exploring at all hours and will stay out of any rooms you are not given clearance to enter. Is that understood?" His voice was deadly, and Harry just found himself nodding.

Snape sneered and then practically tossed Harry into the floo.

A minute of unpleasant spinning later found Harry flat on the floor of an elegant sitting room, his trunk clanging with the birdcage beside him, Hedwig squawking in annoyance, and Draco smirking at him from above.

"Nice landing, Pot-head."

Harry doubted Draco knew the muggle reference, and decided not to inform him, instead giving his attention to ensure Hedwig was alright.

Scrambling up, he felt Snape materialize beside him.

"Draco, my apologies. I just received a call from Madame Pomfrey and am needed at Hogwarts. I will return shortly."

"No problem, Uncle Sev. I'll just show Potter to his room."

Snape looked momentarily suspicious but then brushed it off in the interest of time. "Fine. I will see you soon." And then he vanished.

"Well? Come along, then, Potter. I haven't all day."

Harry considered snapping that he didn't give a damn and that he didn't need to take the spoiled git's orders, but the thought of waiting for an irritable Snape in this drafty old room didn't appeal to him much and so he sighed and followed Draco.

He glared at the arrogant blond's neck, annoyed by how comfortable he seemed as he led them from elegant room to elegant room. They passed by a grand flight of stairs but did not go up it, instead heading down a long hallway into what a far wing of the house. Harry wondered if Draco weren't taking him to some prison cell or torture chamber to lock him away…but eventually they came to a plain door at the end of an out-of-the-way hallway and Draco opened it to reveal a bedroom.

"Here, Potter. Hope you didn't expect better," he sneered.

Harry turned to respond, but Draco was already waltzing back up the hallway, and Harry sighed and entered the room, taking in his surroundings.

It wasn't awful, but it certainly wasn't the kind of bedroom one would expect in such an elegant house, either.

Furnished only with a single bed with an old nightstand, lamp and antique dresser, it was functional, but not one bit luxurious. It was, in all honesty, smaller than his bedroom at the Dursleys'. It was bigger than the cupboard, though, and the furniture didn't appear broken, so Harry figured it could be worse, considering with whom he was living. He noticed the amount of dust coating the floor and furniture, and with a sigh left his things to seek out something to clean it with. After all, he couldn't imagine what Snape would do to him if he were to use magic during the summer to do the job or, Merlin forbid, ask for assistance in making the room more livable.

He was in luck, as a closet full of cleaning supplies was only a few doors down in the same hallway. Finding what he needed, and using the bathroom he found across the hall as well, he filled a bucket with soapy water and found himself scrubbing his little room's floor minutes later. While it hurt more than he would like to admit that he was having to clean up his own guest room, he brushed that aside. At least he was only having to clean for himself, this time. Of course, he hadn't even been there an hour, yet, and was already on his hands and knees. That did not bode well for the coming weeks.

Once satisfied his room was dust-free enough for himself-if not for Aunt Petunia-Harry set Hedwig in her cage beside the window and opened the cage-door. "Hey girl," he said quietly, stroking her soft feathers. "Guess we're back to Privet Drive, but at least I don't think they'd mind if you were to fly around a bit. Opening the window, Harry found himself refreshed by the early-evening air. Hedwig took off after giving him an affectionate nip.

Smiling slightly, Harry stretched out on the little bed. It was slightly chilly in the room with the window open, so he pulled the thin covers up around him. Though they did little to keep the drafts away, Harry was so emotionally and physically exhausted that he soon found himself fast asleep.

-HP-SS-DM-

Day 1

Harry woke covered in sweat, despite the thinness of his blanket, vague images of faceless family members slipping through his fingers, collapsing and vanishing before him. Sirius falling through the veil had finally jolted him into consciousness. When he had finally managed to calm his breathing, Harry noticed the early-morning sun was already peeking into his room.

His stomach grumbled uncomfortably and he realized he'd slept straight through dinner the night before. He wasn't surprised Snape hadn't come to get him. After all, hadn't the man informed him that he would just go without if he couldn't make it on time? Of course, as Snape hadn't seen the need to inform him of what time meals would take place when he had snarled those rules yesterday, Harry wasn't sure how the man had expected anything else. Or perhaps he'd hoped for just that. Harry wouldn't put it past him.

He really didn't want to miss breakfast, too, though. There wasn't even a clock in his room, and he knew better than to use a tempus charm, so he decided to play it safe and attempt to locate the dining room as quickly as possible.

After a quick shower, Harry debated with himself about what to wear. Not that he expected Snape to care how he was dressed, but the man was obviously quite rich judging by the manor's rooms (excepting those in Harry's hallway, apparently), and so he figured the man probably expected those rooming at his house to dress well. Then again, perhaps the room was his way of letting Harry know his place-he would forever be a house-elf, come summers.

He told himself to stop being melodramatic. After all, at least his room and hallway were private. He could appreciate that. Maybe he could just avoid Snape and Malfoy this summer. If so, maybe things wouldn't be so bad.

Finally, he just pulled his Hogwarts robes back on, deciding to leave the Gryffindor tie behind. He didn't feel like giving Snape any more ammunition. Being as invisible as possible was how he'd always dealt with Vernon, and he was going to approach Snape the same way.

Harry glanced at his wand, wondering what to do. If he were at the Dursleys', he'd hide it away. But here, he was torn. Being around Malfoy and Snape without his wand would practically be a suicide wish, but he didn't want to give them any excuse to take it from him. But Snape could probably take it regardless, so he decided to keep it with him, just in case, and then left the hallway the way Draco had led him the night before.

Eventually he made it back into the main wing of the manor, and everything became noticeably more beautiful again. Though Harry assured himself he wouldn't feel comfortable living in such splendor, he was hyper-aware that Draco likely had a multi-room suite and private bathroom to himself. Harry's bathroom was private, too, he supposed, though only because it appeared as if it hadn't been used in decades. The same with all the little rooms along his hallway.

Harry explored hesitantly, curiosity and anxiety warring within him, but began to relax a bit when there was no sign of Snape. He just hoped he'd be able to find the dining room before breakfast time.

He opened a grand set of oak doors and felt himself drawn into the comfortable room beyond. It looked like a reading room, and was full of comfortable-looking armchairs and a large bay window with squishy pillow-seats which looked out onto what, for an instant, Harry thought was the ocean. But no-the water seemed to flow into and through and around large flat fields, stretching on as far as he could see. It was a marsh, Harry realized, though he'd never seen one up close. He remembered reading about the wildlife in marsh-like areas when hiding in the elementary school library from Dudley. For a long time, he'd wanted to explore one-had fantasized about being an adventurer and setting out through the marshland and out into the wide-open sea.

How odd that he would suddenly find himself living by a marsh, one of his childish dreams of a place so very different from the jail-cell of his life at the Dursleys', when he was imprisoned with two of his most hated people.

Now feeling more relaxed and openly curious, he proceeded to look more closely around the room. There was a beautiful mahogany desk in one corner, and Harry curiously crept forward to see several pictures scattered around on it. One was of a young blond child hugging a dark-haired man Harry recognized as a younger Snape around the neck. Must be Draco, he mused, his heart twisting unpleasantly. The Snape in the picture wore the closest thing to a smile Harry could imagine his face capable of. And the child looked so innocent and happy-so different from the cold, sneering boy Harry knew.

Harry looked a bit further and noticed another picture half-covered in papers. He began to make his way toward it. It was of-he couldn't see the person's features clearly, but whoever it was had the most familiar green eyes-

Suddenly, a vice-like grip wound around his upper arm and he just barely stopped himself yelping.

He turned to see a livid Snape, and his gut dropped out, knowing, from the time the man had caught him in his Pensieve, how much he abhorred what would seem to be a blatant invasion of his privacy. From the look on his face, Snape seemed to be in a similar state as he had that day.

Snape yanked him back into the main hall and down several doors to the sitting room they had emerged into from the floo the night before.

"Up to your old tricks already, are you Potter?" He hissed. "I must say, I'm not surprised. Tell me, how does it make you feel to strut around like your insufferable father with no thought to anything but your own infantile fancies? Does it thrill you to invade others' privacy? It must. I'm curious, though, just how far you are willing to go to damage those around you. Well, did you find anything to spread around to your friends, Potter? Did you?"

"N-no, sir, I-"

"You are to cease and desist with this deplorable behavior immediately, Potter. You are not to venture into that room again, nor, as I already informed you, are you to explore anywhere without my express permission. Or is that concept too difficult for your inflated head to comprehend?"

The man was so angry that Harry found himself suddenly terrified of what the man might do. "No, sir. I-I won't do it again."

"No, you won't. But forgive me if I don't take your word for it, Potter."

"Sir?"

"At Hogwarts you may have gotten away with whatever little stunt you pleased, and no doubt your relatives were the same, but I assure you, Potter, you will not have me eating from your hand. You will learn respect."

Snape kept his bruising grip on Harry's arm as he led him down a set of stairs and into what Harry recognized with chagrin as a Potions lab.

"Come," Snape hissed, pulling Harry into a large storage area.

"For your blatant disrespect, you will have this room spotless by the time I return. That includes the cauldrons."

Looking around, Harry gulped at what looked like a most impossible task, but nodded.

Sneering, Snape slammed the door behind him and cast a ward on the door to inform him if it opened. He couldn't have the little snoop peering around his potions lab, after all.

Harry turned to prepare a cleaning solution, a lump in his chest. His stomach was grumbling madly, now, but worse than that was the fact that Snape hadn't given him any definite clue as to when he would return. Would he be permitted lunch? Harry didn't know, but steeled himself, forcing his thoughts away as he always did when he had to clean for the Dursleys under unfair circumstances. Numbing his mind until he could feel nothing, he set to work.


Getting a little angsty? I fear it will be that way for a while. Anyway suggestions or thoughts you have-please share them!

I appreciate it so much!

tess4aria