Author Notes: Hello again, thank you for reading and reviewing! Enjoy this next chapter :)
Warnings: This is an experiment mixing my preference with my daughter's who is the co-author of this story. Hence, there are two OCs, some OOCness, some fluff and a general disregard for the more serious incidents in canon.
- Chapter Start -
The next morning...
The slight weight on Harry's stomach told him he had fallen asleep reading Quidditch Through the Ages yet again. His dorm mates had grown used to seeing him like this every night over the past month, but none of them knew it was to keep him from thinking of Snape. And that it didn't always work.
Taking a deep breath, Harry let it out. The book shifted and started walking up his chest, stopping just shy of his collarbones.
"Meow," it said.
Harry's eyes snapped open. The sight of two round golden eyes peering at him from close range made him blink.
"Velvet? What are you doing in my room? What time is it?"
The gray kitten ignored his questions in favour of jumping down from his chest and stepping up onto his pillow. She put a paw on his forehead and wrinkled her own as if trying to determine his temperature.
"I'm fine," Harry assured her before glancing around, the blurry white shapes and absence of red curtains making him sigh. He didn't need his glasses to know he wasn't in his dorm, but in the Hogwarts Infirmary instead. As last night's events came back to him, he arched his neck, trying to peer past Velvet's head to look at the next bed.
"Is Snape still here? Did he let you in? Where's Caramel?"
Velvet obligingly stepped off the pillow, her eyes sparkling with mischief. The curtains around the next bed had been drawn back and Harry's traitorous heart skipped a beat - there was no mistaking the distinctive profile or nose of the person sleeping there, however blurry his vision was.
Leaning up on one elbow, he groped for his glasses on the bedside table and put them on. Snape came into glorious sharp focus at once, lying on his back with his mouth slightly open, blanket covering him up to his waist. Caramel was curled up on his chest, eyes closed and head resting on her front paws, her small body rising and falling with each breath Snape took.
Harry couldn't help grinning at the sight, enchanted all over again. Snape was wearing an Infirmary issued hospital gown, his neck covered with a layer of thick white cream. Putting a hand to his own neck, Harry encountered the same substance. He absently wiped his fingers off on his own hospital gown, recalling how the single button at the back meant a draft around his bare bottom each time he went to the bathroom.
Ooh, perhaps Snape would need to go to the bathroom once he awoke?
Harry squashed down the thought as soon as it materialised in his mind, embarrassed and vexed over his stupid crush on the Potions Master.
"Meow?" Caramel had opened one green eye which was now looking enquiringly at him.
"Oh, hello, Caramel," Harry whispered, not wanting Snape to wake up just yet.
Caramel hopped down from Snape's chest and went to stand beside his pillow, blocking his face from Harry's rapt gaze.
"Meow," she said in a cross tone and shook her head.
Shaking her head, Velvet leapt onto Snape's bed and tried to push Caramel aside. That immediately started a silent pushing and headbutting round, one which made the long frame under the blanket shift and a long suffering sigh to sound.
"Ladies, please."
The two kittens immediately stopped pushing and turned to him, ears raised.
"Meow?"
"Meow?"
"I am fine, thank you for asking. Now, how did you two get past Poppy?"
Uttering happy little meows, the two kittens moved closer and started patting his face. The sound of a deep chuckle made Harry's grin reappear and it was still on his face when Caramel and Velvet moved back.
Both Snape and Harry found themselves staring at each other, the former with soft black eyes and smiling lips; the latter with a big goofy grin. Then both smiles disappeared, replaced by startled wariness.
"Good morning, sir," Harry said, trying to sound as if waking up in the bed next to his Potions professor was an everyday occurrence.
"Did you pull open my bed curtain?" Snape demanded, ignoring his greeting.
Harry shook his head at once. "No, sir."
Snape's eyes narrowed at him before his head snapped back to Caramel and Velvet. They were studying the close knit pattern of their master's blanket as if their nine lives depended on it, almost cross eyed with how close their tiny noses were to the cloth.
"You two are going to be the death of me," Snape informed them in no uncertain terms.
Two pairs of sly eyes peeked up at him and then at each other. Deciding that this was as empty a threat as the numerous ones before it, their owners settled down again. Velvet looked content, but Caramel took one look at the expression on Harry's face and marched up to Snape's pillow once more. She grabbed a mouthful of curtain and started pulling it towards the foot of the bed, blocking Snape's face from view.
"Meow!" Velvet jumped up and hurried to her. She grabbed her own mouthful of curtain and pulled in the opposite direction, stopping Caramel in her tracks.
"Caramel, Velvet, what are you two doing?" Snape's voice sounded bewildered behind the curtain.
"Meomf!" Caramel started walking backwards as she pulled, her back paws stepping onto Snape's blanket. The curtain slid a few more inches, now hiding Snape's head and chest from Harry's sight.
"Meomff!" Velvet gave an even harder tug, pulling Caramel and the curtain until Harry could see Snape and his baffled expression before Caramel managed to dig in her paws.
"Stop this at once, both of you!" Propping himself up on one arm, Snape grabbed the curtain with his free hand and tried to free the abused cloth from sharp little teeth. "Let go at once!"
"Meomff!" Caramel shook her head and pulled even harder.
"Meomffffff!" Shaking her head as well, Velvet gave an almighty tug that created a series of long vertical rips in the curtain and finally succeeded in making Caramel lose both her grip and her balance. The caramel coloured kitten hissed, letting go of the curtain as she skidded right to the edge of Snape's bed, pulling his blanket half off him.
"What the-"
As Snape hurriedly released the curtain to snatch at his slipping blanket, Velvet gave another huge tug and that was it - Caramel tumbled right off the bed, yowling fit to raise the dead. Her little rump caught Velvet off guard and knocked her off the bed as well. With a loud riiiiiiiiiippp, the curtain parted way with the hooks at the top and fell on top of the kittens, Snape's blanket following a scant second later.
Both Snape and Harry leaned over the sides of their respective beds, narrowly avoiding hitting their heads together. They stared down at the struggling material on the floor, muffled and indignant meows coming from under it.
"Serves you two right," Snape declared. His head snapped up when Harry chuckled and then they were staring at each other, amused eyes giving way to awkward wariness once again.
Harry looked away first and froze, his attention caught by a hospital gown pulled askew. One of Snape's legs was exposed - a long limb made up of a slender thigh, a bony knee and a skinny calf, on which a scar was visible.
"Potter! Are you looking at my leg!"
Harry's fascinated gaze swung back to Snape's face whose thunderous expression contrasted sharply with his red cheeks. Before Harry could squeak out an untruthful denial, the series of muffled meows from under the curtain and blanket escalated and then both material were racing out from between their beds, propelled along the Infirmary floor by eight frantic paws.
"Oh, merciful Merlin!"
Harry and Snape winced as Madam Pomfrey's startled exclamation was followed by the sound of breaking glass and a loud thump. Two seconds later, a large jar rolled into the space between their beds, sporting a dent at the bottom and a label proclaiming it to be 'Numbing Salve' in Snape's spidery handwriting.
"Hmph!" Snape bolted upright and tugged his hospital gown straight. "It's the cauldron for them the next time they pull a stunt like this."
Turning away, Harry saw two impish faces peeking out from under the blanket on the floor and grinned. He knew just as well as Caramel and Velvet did that they had nothing to fear from their master.
- o -
Half an hour later...
Madam Pomfrey released Snape and Harry - her last two patients - after making sure they were both free from fever and purple spots. Professor McGonagall had brought the Weasley twins to her a few minutes ago where the guilty pair confessed to accidentally releasing a purple liquid of their own creation in the Gryffindor common room yesterday evening. One of its key ingredients was the African Lilac orchid which had an extremely itchy purple powder on their petals.
The good news was, its effect would last no longer than eight hours and had no permanent effects. The bad news was, McGonagall had deducted twenty points from Gryffindor and an annoyed Snape had issued the twins a detention they would remember all their lives before storming off to the Infirmary bathroom to change into his teaching robes. Too bad for Harry that Madam Pomfrey had chosen that time to pull the curtains around his bed closed to give him a final check up.
Dressed once more in his school uniform, Harry sat on his bed with Caramel and Velvet in his arms, waiting for Snape to come out of the bathroom. The swift booted steps made him look up to find Snape standing at the foot of his bed, back to his usual dour self.
"Hand them over, Potter."
Almost smiling at the familiar command, Harry slid off the bed and went to Snape. He wasn't surprised when Caramel leapt to her master's hand at once while Velvet waited to be carried. It was only at a raised eyebrow from her master that the gray kitten pouted and jumped to his other hand.
"Meow."
"Meow."
Harry smiled as both kittens held their front paws out to him in unison. Ignoring Snape's glower, he reached out and brushed the tops of their heads with gentle fingertips, smiling when they batted playfully at his hand.
"No more liquor, alright?" he said softly, alluding to last night's incident. "You had us both worried last night."
"I was not worried, Potter," Snape snapped. "Merely annoyed and inconvenienced."
"Of course, sir," Harry said, giving the kittens a conspiratorial wink.
Snape looked even more sour at that, jerking his head at the Infirmary doors in a clear dismissal.
Nodding, Harry turned on his heel and walked out with a smile on his face. He had never enjoyed staying in the Infirmary, but he had to admit this particular stay was bearable, thanks to Caramel and Velvet. Perhaps even... enjoyable.
- Chapter End -
A/N: Thank you for reading! Please review?