Chapter Four
"Ok we have eggs, bacon, sausage, black pudding, toast, french toast, and grilled tomatoes for Severus but not for Sorin. Are you sure that you guys are ok with this?" Harry asked as he hurried into the room balancing the lightened tray in one hand and Teddy with the other.
Severus waved him off already reaching for Teddy and ignoring the breakfast.
"We will be fine," Sorin assured him.
"You sure? You look like I am handing you a bomb," Harry grinned teasingly as he passed Teddy over to Severus. The looks Sorin shot Teddy were more than amusing really, he was clearly interested in the baby, but at the same time looked terrified he was about to blow up on him at any time, wariness always present. And he had yet to hold him for longer than a few minutes. Severus seemed to take great delight in teasing his brother with this.
"Severus will be fine, I will watch and awe at the fact that he can make him stop crying," Sorin amended with a rueful look.
"Thank you both so much for this," Harry said grabbing his bag and digging through it to make sure that he had everything.
"You do more than enough for us, babysitting for a few hours while you go take your exam is no problem," Sorin snorted.
"Its a really good thing that Hermione has enforced through the Ministry that teachers have to prove that they are actually competent of teaching their position. But why did she have to do it!" Harry groaned.
"You will be more than fine Harry," Sorin placed his hand on Harry's shoulder. Harry felt his cheeks heat up at the contact but when he looked up to meet those black eyes that he was quickly becoming obsessed with he felt a calm settle over him too. "If you can teach a bunch of students in secret and manage to get them to pass their exams with flying colours, this is going to be a breeze,"
*You are competent, if you do not pass I will eat my favourite cauldron,* Severus snapped. Harry hid his pleased grin but nodded to the Potions Master. Severus was dropping more and more little compliments like that. Harry didn't know if it was something Sorin had said, or that he realised Harry wasn't going to give up and go away. But either way it was nice.
"Thank you. Right wish me luck!" He sucked in a breath as he and Sorin made their way to the door, Severus already immersed in Teddy again.
"You do not need it," Sorin said firmly, he took Harry's hand however and raised it to his lips, gently brushing a kiss to the back of it. "But luck to you,"
"I erm..." Harry knew he was probably Weasley red right now, and he was fairly sure if asked he wouldn't be able to tell you his own name.
"Though I have to admit t would be very amusing to see my brother eating his favourite cauldron," Sorin snickered.
"I...yes...I should go," Harry motioned down the corridor but made no move to actually go drawing an amused smile from the other man.
"You will do well,"
"Right, exam, yes," Harry nodded.
"See you in a few hours," Sorin called as Harry turned and started away. Harry grinned and waved to him, and then narrowly missed walking into one of the suits of armour. Grumbling to himself he spun quickly back around and hurried down the corridor, trying to ignore the burning in his face and his hand.
"I passed!" Harry grinned bouncing into the room, he had already told Hermione and Ron, they had been waiting for him as soon as he came out of the exam room. He wasn't entirely sure that his ribs were going to recover from the hug that they had given him. But he had also wanted to hurry back to tell Charlie, Sorin and Severus.
"You did it!" Charlie beamed sweeping Harry into a tight hug. "I am so proud of you!" he said snatching the parchment from Harry's fingers.
"Congratulations," Sorin took Harry's hand again and pressed another kiss to Harry's hand and then another to his cheek. "I knew you could do it,"
"100%! Harry you got 100%!" Charlie squealed, actually squealed, pouncing on him again and swinging him into a tight hug.
"It was actually quite an easy test," Harry blushed.
"A test passed by Hermione? Easy! Ha!" Charlie snorted.
"Charlie is right, 100% is amazing, congratulations," Sorin smiled.
*Well done* Severus held up a prewritten sign making Harry grin.
"Do you have a pre-prepared never mind better luck next time sign?" He asked.
*Of course not* Harry grinned even wider at the compliment.
"So you are now officially allowed to teach at Hogwarts now?" Sorin said softly.
"Yes I am. And I have told Minerva that I will teach here for at least the next year," Harry said softly.
"I am pleased for you," Sorin touched Harry's cheek, knowing what it meant to Harry for him to make the decision to stay.
"You will be amazing," Charlie kissed his cheek.
*Now you will know what its like teaching here, karma is wonderful*
"Thank you for your warm and heart felt words Severus," Harry laughed especially when Severus made a rude gesture towards him.
"You're going to do amazing," Charlie assured him.
"Of course you are," Sorin agreed. Harry flushed darkly at the praise grinning shyly at them as he looked to Sorin again.
"I'm so proud of you, do Hermione and Ron know?" Charlie asked looking back down at the parchment.
"Yes they were waiting outside for me," Harry smiled.
"How does it feel to be the first of the Hogwarts teachers to pass the Educational Licence Examination?" Charlie nudged Harry gently.
"Weird, and good," Harry chuckled.
*I have a present for you,* Severus said, adjusting Teddy where he was sleeping against his shoulder and nodded to a small pile of books and notebooks that were sitting on the side table. Curiously Harry made his way over to him and sat in the spare chair, picking up the first notebook and flickd through it.
"Defence notes?" He asked looking up to see Severus scribbling away.
*They are my notes from two years ago when I took over the defence position, outlines for ideas for lessons. The books are ones I collected on advice on how to set up syllabus, lesson plans and exams etc
"Thank you," Harry breathed quickly flicking through the books with interest.
*You can borrow any of my books you like,* Severus added nodding to his over flowing bookshelves.
"You might regret that when I am raiding your hoard very other day," Harry warned.
*At least you will be learning* Severus shrugged.
"I have a gift for you as well," Sorin picked up a wrapped present from the table and held it out to Harry.
"You didn't have to," Harry shook his head.
"But I wanted to. Its nothing amazing," Sorin coughed.
"Thank you," Harry said honestly.
"You don't even know what it is yet," Sorin smiled.
"Oh right!" Harry looked back down to the package in his hands. Carefully he unwrapped the package in his hands, smiling when he saw the beautiful leather bound journal.
"I thought that you could use it for your lesson plans and notes," Sorin suggested.
"Its beautiful thank you," Harry stroked his fingers over the binding.
"That's a lot of confidence that he would pass the exams," Charlie grinned throwing his arm around Harry's shoulders.
"Of course he was going to pass," Sorin shrugged. Charlie grunted when Harry elbowed him in the stomach as he started sniggering at the blush that spread across Harry's cheeks.
"How has Teddy been?" Harry asked walking over to look at his sleeping godson. His hair was bright blue and he was still fast asleep clutching onto his favourite cuddly toy.
"He's been fine, he's been sleeping for the last hour," Sorin assured him.
"Andromeda will be here in the next hour for him," Charlie told him.
"Hopefully everything went ok with her and Narcissa," Harry hummed.
*She was seeing Narcissa?* Severus wrote.
"Yes they are giving it another go with their relationship with each other. Narcissa reached out to her when she heard about Tonks," Harry nodded brushing his fingers along Teddy's cheeks.
*Narcissa missed her, I hope it works* Severus said, with a slightly distant expression on his face as he got when he was thinking about the war. Harry sat down beside him and smiled understandingly before pulling one the books towards him and started flicking through them. Charlie and Sorin sat close by watching as Harry asked Severus a few questions regarding his lesson plans, which eventually seemed to pull him from his thoughts.
"So you're going to be teaching Ginny," George said thoughtfully.
"Please don't remind me, its awkward enough when we're around each other at the minute," Harry sighed dropping his head onto the book he was studying.
"Least you're not teaching anyone from your year, that really would be awkward!" George snickered. "Is she still being bad?"
"Yeah, quite bad. She seems to have it stuck in her head that we are going to be getting back together," Harry muttering into the pages of the book.
"Have you tried just telling her outright that you don't see her that way, you never really did and you never will?" George asked.
"I don't want to be too harsh with her with you know..." Harry drew off with a grimace.
"Fred?" George said softly.
"Yes," Harry reached down and squeezed George's hand supportively seeing the pain on the man's face.
"You can't let her use her grief as an excuse for her behaviour towards you. She knows that you won't want to upset her more," George shook his head.
"We'll see, hopefully she will click on soon. How is it working with Lee and Seamus?" Harry asked.
"Its not the same as having Fred there in the shop with me, but it is good, its working, though I think Lee is going to kill Seamus if he makes one more explosion go off, he's going to develop a heart defect soon," George snickered. He looked tired and worn, grief still very clear on his face, but he was strong and he was living for the both of them, no matter how much he clearly missed Fred. And that included keeping the shop running.
Harry shifted and threw himself on top pf George knocking him to his stomach, then he hugged him tightly, ignoring the laughter coming from the redhead. He had started doing this with George when he had worked himself into a such a depression a week after the funeral that he barely heard what people were saying to them. Everyone was tip toeing around him, worried about upsetting him more, Harry had walked in and just thrown himself on top of George hugging him tightly through the tantrum that George had thrown and then just hugged him even tighter when he fianlly allowed himself to cry.
Harry wasn't sure how long they lay there like that but he had made himself comfortable and was actually nodding off a little, but he didn't hear the door opening until someone made a shocked noise. Blinking he looked up to see Sorin standing there looking at them with something in his eyes Harry couldn't put his finger on. Then he spun on his heel and just stormed out.
Harry scrambled off of George ignoring the prankster's knowing grin - he and Charlie gossiped way way too much - and then raced off after Sorin.
"Why all these bloody red heads!" He heard Sorin muttering.
"Sorin! Wait! Did you want something?" Harry asked as he finally caught up with him.
"I didn't mean to interupt," He said sharply.
"You weren't! We were just..its just...that's George, when he gets sad I just, hug him, it makes him feel better!" Harry said quickly.
"George?" Sorin frowned a little looking considering.
"Yes George," Harry nodded quickly.
"Oh, right...I was actually going into Aberdeen to get some things I need, I was just wondering if you wanted anything?" Sorin cleared his throat looking a little uncomfortable.
"Oh well yes please, I need a few books acually and some new parchment, I will get you the money," Harry said.
"No, no its ok, we can sort that when I come back, I will see you later," Sorin nodded, turning quickly on his heel in a move that was very much Severus, and started off down the corridor again.
"Sorin wait!" Harry hurried after him again and caught his elbow. "About George..."
"I...misunderstood, my apologies," Sorin coughed not meeting Harry's eye.
"I erm..." Harry wanted to say something about what he was fairly sure was jealousy, but he couldn't find the words.
"I will see you later," Sorin took Harry's pause to nod, retrieve his elbow and hurry down the hallway as quickly as he could without running. Harry frowned after him before turning to go back to his room, trying to work through what he could say to Sorin, though there was hope flaring in his chest.
"Hey," George was peering around the doorway, clearly having been watching them.
"Shut up!" Harry grumbled his face burning darkly.
"He's good looking, from what you can see of his face, does he always wear his hair like that? Its a little weird thinking that Snape's brother is actually ok," George scrunched his nose as he trailed after Harry back to the sofa. They got comfortable on the sofa again, George snuggling into Harry.
"Yeah he always wears his hair like that, I haven't seen it any surther back, I think he uses a spell, his hair doesn't move even in the wind," Harry sighed.
"And on him being good looking?" George wiggled his eyebrows before yelping when Harry shoved him off of the sofa.