Hello readers and fellow fans of Snarry! Thank you for all of the wonderful reviews, I'm so glad that you guys like it! First and foremost, I'll just remind you guys that this is a Snarry fic, so even though not much has happened, just know it may or may not venture into that SNARRY realm in the next few chapters. Due to the M rating, there may be some *ahem* delicate scenes in the coming chapters as well.
Without further adieu,
ON WITH THE FIC!
"Come on, Harry! Just get in the water!" Hermione cried as she sprayed water at him with her wand, missed, and hit the Potions professor.
Harry sent Snape a sheepish glance as his mouth thinned. Hermione went white as a sheet and immediately began stammering apologies. "Oh, don't worry about me, Mr. Potter. I would be much more worried about Miss Granger here. Miss Granger, you will be in charge of gathering wood and starting the fire tonight. By yourself. No magic."
Harry shrugged at her. That wasn't too bad. Since Hermione was Muggleborn, she had gone camping with her parents, starting many fires in the process. Surely, Snape had a few tricks up his sleeve to ensure more suffering on her part.
Draco and Ron had created some sort of water slide that started about 50 feet above the bed of water, near the rocks where Harry and Snape were sitting, then slid around with rather impressive sharp turns and loops. The seventh years were having quite the time. Harry looked on as his classmates grew louder and crazier.
"You know, Potter, if I didn't know any better, I would say that you intentionally stayed out of the water today," Snape's voice said softly to Harry.
Harry took quick note of the number of times he had been embarrassed by Snape, and added another one to the list as he said, "Er – what makes you say that?"
"I know you received an O on your last Transfiguration exam," he answered simply. When Harry failed to find words to respond, he continued. "The exam on Transfiguring clothing. You say you forgot your swim trunks; why not transfigure some of your clothes?" Harry continued to say nothing. "Tell me, Potter. Do you know how to swim?"
Harry blew out the breath he had been holding for nearly a minute. "Um, no. I mean, I can stay up in the water, but I never learned how to swim," he lied.
Snape's eyes met Harry's for the first time this afternoon. Snape gave a bemused smile and shook his head. Standing up and giving himself a bit of a stretch, he announced, "Time to pack up! Finch-Fletchey, if I see you do that again, I will curse your tongue off!"
Laughing at the look on Justin's face, Harry reduced the size of his Sudoku puzzle, stuck it in his bag, and stood up. However, he stood up a little too quickly and slipped on the wet rock. He felt his feet slide off the ground and up in the air, hit his back on the rock, but before he could make the 50 foot plunge head first into the water, he felt a pair of arms wrap themselves around his midsection and pull him back up.
And there he was, sitting up on the rock with his legs sticking out, his Potions professor bent over and holding him up. Being held by Severus Snape was all Harry could have hoped for – and more. The man who was so emotionally cold was completely warm. His hair tickled Harry's ears. Harry could even hear Snape's heartbeat through his clothing. He sighed into Snape's robes, feeling the soft cloth against his cheek and wishing it were bare skin.
"Potter, if you don't mind, I would like to stand now."
"Oh, right." Harry adjusted himself so Snape could stand up. Snape held out his hand to help Harry up. Harry smiled warmly as he grasped the older man's hand and gasped as Snape purposely let him go. Harry fell backwards, though this time, he was safe from the ledge.
"You fool," Snape scoffed, but Harry could hear a smile in those words. Rubbing his backside, he stood up and glowered at Snape.
Did Severus Snape just flirt with him? Sure, it was in his own special way, but there was definitely a hint of playfulness in the man's tone. Harry, try as he might, was unable to remove the goofy grin that was plastered on his face as he and Snape climbed down the rocks to meet the other students, who were performing Drying Spells on each other.
Ron and Hermione saw Harry walking towards them and smiled. "So, how was your swim?" he asked.
"Never mind the swim, Harry, how was your time up there with You-Know-Who?" Hermione asked with a grin.
"Who, Voldemort?" Harry played dumb.
Ron rolled his eyes. "I saw you two snuggled together up there on that rock."
"Relax, Ron, he admired an erasable pen and then helped me do a Sudoku puzzle. Not much to tell," Harry answered, grimacing as he looked at his bruise.
"Erasable pen? What's-"
"How did you get that?" Hermione interrupted Ron, worried.
"I stood up too quickly and slipped," Harry said, a blush creeping into his cheeks. Failing to mention that Snape caught him before he fell, he added, "Fell right on my arse."
"Merlin, you could have fallen off that rock!" Ron exclaimed as they started walking back towards camp.
"Well, at least you made some progress," Hermione mentioned.
"What are you talking about?" Ron looked at Hermione with a frown. "I thought we decided that Harry should avoid the greasy git like the plague, then find a nice bloke to settle down with after he gets a job playing Quidditch."
Hermione gave him a Mrs. Weasley-ish stare and said, "Ron, you know how Harry feels about Professor Snape. He should at least try."
"Will you stop talking so loudly?" Harry asked through gritted teeth. "Everyone can hear us."
"No they can't," answered Hermione. "I used Muffliato."
Ron beamed at his girlfriend. "Good idea."
"Okay, well, can you at least stop talking about me like I'm not here?" Harry asked, frustrated.
"Okay, Harry, what do you want?" Hermione turned to him quickly.
"You know what I want," he muttered, his head hanging down.
"Well, how are you going to do that without talking to him? Honestly, Harry, I can't do everything for you," Hermione said impatiently.
"I guess you're right. What do you think I should do?" Harry asked. Hermione generally had the best advice out of any of his friends, even though he rarely listened to her the first time she gave it. Not this time though. Anything she suggested, he would try as soon as he could.
Hermione thought for a few moments and then smiled. "Here's what you're going to do tonight," she began.
Harry walked back to the camp in an even better mood. He had just a few short hours before it got dark, and then he would try out Hermione's plan.
"Okay, I'll see you guys later. Snape is making me gather wood and make a fire for tonight," Hermione said, rolling her eyes.
Dean and Seamus walked up to Harry, Dean holding a deck of cards. "You guys want to play some cards while we're waiting?" asked Dean.
"Yes, Dean wants to teach everyone how to play Poke Her."
"It's poker, Seamus."
"Sure, I – "
"POTTER!"
The yell echoed through the campsite. Everyone stopped and stared at Harry.
"Yes, Professor?" he choked out.
"Kindly come to our tent," Snape said, beckoning him over to the tent, which he stood outside of, his long hair slightly hanging over his face.
Harry walked over and faced Snape. "Yes?"
"Pray, tell me what was going through your pea-sized brain this morning," Snape said silkily, clasping his hands together.
Harry frowned and thought back to that morning. Ron had brought him breakfast, he put on his clothes, brushed his hair, and-
Harry clapped his hand over his mouth. "Professor, I didn't mean to do that," he said desperately.
"Oh really?" Snape asked, glaring at the raven-haired boy.
"I didn't know what else to do! I had to brush my hair and I forgot to bring mine with me! I didn't think you'd mind, it was just a few quick-"
Snape's eyes grew wide. "You did WHAT?" he asked.
"I thought you knew."
"You used another man's HAIRBRUSH? Who DOES that? That is DISGUSTING!" Snape yelled at Harry, who seemed to be shrinking by the second.
"Well, in my defense, it's not as if I have a lot of hair or dandruff or lice or anything like that," Harry tried to reason.
Snape seemed to regain control of himself, and spat out, "That makes TWO mistakes you made this morning. Do take a look inside our tent."
Harry peered in and immediately saw what was wrong. Apparently, he had left his oatmeal bowl inside the tent and an army of ants decided to invade the area. There were at least 500 large red ants crawling around their things. They had completely covered the bowl and were all over both of their sleeping bags. Mortified, he turned to Snape. "I'm so sorry," he mumbled.
"You're sorry for leaving a bowl of oatmeal in our tent, but you're not sorry for using my hairbrush. You tried to DEFEND yourself," Snape said indignantly.
"Who cares about your hairbrush? There are ants where we SLEEP!" Harry exclaimed and began using spells to vanish the ants.
"Ants we can deal with. My hairbrush is my personal property and you've soiled it with your utterly messy rubbish excuse for hair."
"What do you want me to do?" Harry asked exasperatedly, still ridding the tent of the ants. When Snape did not respond, he shook his head and said, "I'm sorry about the hairbrush. I really didn't think you would find out."
Snape pursed his lips and glowered at him. "Fine. Potter, you're lucky that I always bring an extra with me wherever I go in case I lose the other one."
What kind of man brought two hairbrushes with him on a camping trip? Harry shook his head, glancing around for any more rogue ants in his sleeping bag. He noticed that Snape was now standing over his bag, and picked up the used hairbrush.
"I suppose you can use this one. It's already been ruined by your head," Snape said, holding out his prized brush to Harry.
Harry dropped his wand. "Really?" he asked, trying to contain his excitement.
"Don't look so happy. It's a bloody hairbrush, Potter."
"I don't know, Professor. I think it's a pretty important part of a man's hygiene ritual," Harry bravely chanced the joke.
"Oh do shut up," Snape snapped as he turned around and walked out of the tent.
END OF CHAPTER 4
Did you like it? I had some other ideas, but I went with the ones in the chapter…next chapter is the second night campfire and bedtime with Sev and Harry! I wonder what Hermione has planned…