Nevertheless he mounted the bike. He had always gotten Dudley's old bikes, which was every month or so, and they had been completely run down by his cousin. He had become used early on to adverse circumstances and he was not to let that disturb him now. The bike was just fine. He had to adjust it a little to their special needs, though.

He circled the glaring professor, thinking of just how to do it.

He pulled his wand and jumped off the bike in mid motion. Snape shot him a glance with something in it that he suddenly felt to be – to resemble something like – admiration? That couldn't be. He stumbled over his own feet as soon as he hit the ground. He was never clumsy with his feet off the ground, but very often when down.

That surely must mean something and Hermione would have told him exactly what it was. But Hermione was not here just now. Snape was and he surely hadn't done any such thing as looking at him with a positive feeling, but was waiting for him to make a complete idiot out of himself, as always.

And he could do that, as always, and would. Even more so with Snape – touching him.

- Ye Gods! -

He came back from his reverie and looked at the bike thoughtfully. Some minor adjustments, here and there, and it might just work out. Technically, that was. For all the other things involved, he couldn't speak just yet.

He pointed his wand at the bike and a second pair of pedals came into being. He flicked the wand again and the handlebar elongated up into the air. He pointed at the saddle and that grew, too.

Okay, that would do. At least he hoped so. He would just have to make up other things as they came along.

He breathed carefully. Deep. In. Out.

- No. Please. Not these thoughts again. Not just now. -

Breathing was the activity that was called for. Nothing else.

He jumped on the bike and rode along the place to get acquainted to the new measurements. That was at least what he told himself.

When his breathing and other bodily functions had calmed down enough for his immediate satisfaction, he stopped the bike in front of Snape.

- Calm and quiet. No mischief anywhere. Look extremely innocent. No, not too much. He'll only become suspicious. Extremely suspicious. -

"Come on, Professor. Your turn to learn something."

Black eyes filled with deep suspicion.

Slid over Harry, burned into him, bore into him.

He did not shudder. Just in time before he was about to faint, the black eyes were on the bike.

Blinked.

A sound. "Harry, you can't mean it".

Desperate. Ron.

That seemed to be incentive enough for Snape.

He took a few steps that brought him to the bike. And Harry.

That look. Again.

"And where do you want me, Potter?"

- Oh god. Anywhere. -

"Er, let's try in front first? So that you can see where we're heading?"

The eyebrow.

- No that doesn't mean what it looks. Surely not. No need to get excited. None of us in this body, right?! -

"As you wish, Potter. You're the boss here".

Silk. Low. That much was old. But - subordination? Acknowledging that Harry was the leader?

Unthinkable.

And he wouldn't go there right now.

Again he reached out a hand to Snape. He had a feeling that he had done nothing else the whole day.

Ron clearly didn't like it. Harry caught a glimpse of his best friend. His jaw was literally hanging down.

Harry couldn't care less just now.

He was more interested in holding the bike at bay that insisted on wiggling about with the desperate movements of Snape trying to get on it.

And then he managed. All the air in Harry escaped with a soft sound as the back of the Potions master hit his forefront. He tried hard to hold on – to the bike, to the ground and to his salvation.

No, this didn't mean anything. It was sports, nothing else. And the closeness of a body that he had been drooling over for years didn't mean that his body ought to react.

Simply not. Damned.

He tried to adjust and hold the bike upright. Not so easy under the onslaught of sensations.

Snape's black hair tickling his nose. Snape's smell, too. Snape's robe scratching his bare arms. Snape's body in his arms, between his legs.

Snape. That close.

- Ohmygod.-

That was really his most idiotic idea ever. He would die of humiliation, of embarrassment, of a very sudden and painful death at the hands of the Potions master when that something he felt stirring again in his groin would grow any further and come to the notice of Snape.

'But perhaps it would be worth it.'

- Simply not. -

'Just think of the bike.'

- Too late. -

The bike, Snape and Harry all together landed on the earth in a complete mess.

It felt – good. Though it hurt some. And Harry just hoped that Snape took an outstanding part of his anatomy as a part of the bike. The consistence was nearly the same.

- Damn it. -

Snape's face was directly above him, his frame pressed Harry's smaller one down and the bike was somewhere in between.

Harry thought he must have died and gone to heaven.

Those lips opened directly before his. "Was that what you had in mind in teaching me hold my equilibrium, Mr. Potter? I am quite impressed. I understand you consider it the embodiment of progress, for me to fall to the earth with you and the bike instead of only with the bike? Yes, it really feels distinctly better".

And he gave him that eyebrow again. Harry doubted very much that Snape had taken his anatomy for part of the bike. He blushed deeply.