Chapter Seven
"Avoiding the Truth..."
When Harry stepped through the portrait hole, he had expected the Gryffindor Common Room to be empty. But it wasn't. For as soon as he stepped in, he heard his name shouted out and was immediately smothered in hugs.
"Are you okay?" Hermione asked.
"We were so worried!" Ginny added.
"Way to go, mate. You ask my sister to be your girlfriend and then you faint on her. Right – real smooth." Ron punched Harry playfully in the arm, grinning.
Harry gave a forced chuckle. "H-Hey guys." He said. "I-I was just going to get my bag and go down to the Great Hall for breakfast – it officially starts in five minutes, you know."
"So what happened? What did you faint?" Ginny wanted to know, reaching out and caressing Harry's arm gently.
Harry jerked back as a natural reflex. He had always been like that – whenever someone laid a finger on him, even with good intentions, he always gave a little jump. But now he had even more of a reason – he didn't know if he would be allowed to date Ginny. He couldn't lead her on... that would only make it worse.
"S-Sorry." Why do I keep stuttering? "I'm just tired."
Ginny, Ron and Hermione nodded, understandably. "What happened?" Hermione pressed.
"What happened?" Harry stalled. What did happen? I was nervous.. no, too weak. My scar hurt? No that will make them worry. "I ate something bad." Harry announced. He was telling the truth there – except that he didn't touch that Contineo Potion, no matter what Snape and Dumbledore believed.
"I, er, need to get my bag." He edged away from them before jogging up the stairs to his dormitory.
Bag in hand, he jogged down the stairs again, to find that Ron and Hermione had left, leaving Ginny alone in the Common Room. She smiled at him. "They wanted to leave us alone." She smiled, giving Harry a big hug, wrapping her arms around his chest, leaning her head against his bony chest. "I was so worried."
Harry slightly raised his arms, awkwardly. He supposed he should hug her back, but... was he allowed to? "Well, we'd better get to the Great Hall." The nervousness as in his voice.
Ginny pulled away and gave him a searching look. "Something's up." She stated. She said it as a fact, not just a lurking suspicion. Growing up with Fred and George as brothers, Harry supposed that suspicion was just part of her nature.
He sighed. "Yes Ginny, something is up. I, er, can't explain it right now, but I assure you," he took her chin into his hand. "it has nothing to do with how I feel about you. I love you."
The next thing Harry knew was that Ginny's mouth was on his. It felt good, like electricity jolting from her mouth to his. He... he couldn't think straight. It was so... wrong. He couldn't do this to her. Not now. Not before he knew what was going on.
Harry pulled away reluctantly. "If we don't stop now, we'll probably miss breakfast." He laughed. "I don't know what we could tell Professor Binn's - "Sorry Professor – I was too busy snogging my girlfriend to attend your boring lecture'?"
Ginny giggled. "I love you, Harry." She said softly, taking his hand and leading him out of the portrait hole.
Where is he? Severus wondered, looking over at the Gryffindor table. There's Granger and Weasley... just my luck, Potter being the one taking the Potion. Just like his father – the most irresponsible, irrational, immature- Weasley. Where's the Weasley girl? He scanned the Gryffindor table wildly, his throat swelling in panic. Potter. He's with the Weasley girl! Severus gripped the edge of the table, trying to keep calm. Doesn't he realize the importance of meals? They were in the same room, though far apart, during meals. It was important to attend every meal, unless they were somewhere else together!
"Is something wrong, Severus?" Minerva McGonagall asked quietly.
Severus shook his head, his black hair falling in front of his face. He couldn't tell Minerva – no, not yet. The quieter they could keep their Bond for now, the better. Of course, Minerva would find out eventually – all of the Hogwarts students would. And what with it being such a rare Potion – and with Harry Potter! - it would be all over The Daily Prophet. Just what I need, Severus grimaced.
"Is it about the Potter boy?" She asked in so low a whisper that Severus could barely hear her.
Severus jerked his head up. "How did you know?" He hissed.
"Dumbledore told me." She said calmly, delicately taking a bite of her pancake. "Don't look so surprised, Severus – you know how quickly news can spread here."
"Terrific." Severus muttered, stirring the contents of his plate around. He hadn't been able to eat one bite of it. Supper the previous night seemed so long ago. It seemed like his world had been drastically turned upside-down for ages, not mere hours.
"If you ever want to talk about it..." she let him know gently.
Severus just scowled. "Where is that child?" He groaned, growing more apprehensive by the moment. His look of worry translated into a look of anger, which explained the uncomfortable look of all Gryffindors whenever he looked back over at their table.
"He's hardly a child, Severus." Minerva calmly took a sip of her tea. "He has been of-age for a year now. And it has been hard to think of him as a child for years now – ever since his fourth year, really."
"He is eighteen." Severus gripped his fork with such force it looked as if he were trying to bend it in two. "A mere infant."
Minerva just laughed that off. "He has seen more than most eighteen year olds I know. His life has been hard, Severus. Please don't make it even harder on him."
Of course we think of the Harry Potter first, he scoffed silently. His poor life has been oh so hard... nobody else's can compare. After all, what is harder than using a few elementary skills? He had help for getting the Philosopher's Stone; he would have died had the ruddy phoenix not come down into the Chamber of Secrets; he was helped through the Tri-Wizard Tournament, guaranteed to never lose. Oh, but he had to look into the face of Voldemort and try to kill him. I suppose that cannot be harder than having to con one of the greatest living Wizards that you are indeed on his side, while having to- He stopped himself. He didn't like to think about his past, and avoided doing so as much as possible. It brought back too many painful memories of anger, fright, abuse and other situations that only a true Slytherin could worm his way out of.
"There he is." Minerva subtly nudged him and with a nod of her head, pointed towards to figures heading towards the Gryffindor table from the doors of the Great Hall.
Severus stared hard. There was Potter, looking exactly how he had left him, with his bag... being led by the hand to the Gryffindor table by Ginny Weasley. What is the boy thinking? Holding her hand? Has he gone absolutely mad?
"He doesn't know, does he?" Minerva inquired knowingly.
Guilty. "Yes, well, somehow we managed to skip over that part last night." Severus couldn't meet Minerva's eyes, but he knew she was looking disapprovingly at him.
"I see. And when exactly were you planning on telling him? You know, just because you are his professor and nineteen years his senior does not mean that you can just leave him in the dark. He is in the same position you are – the two of you are equals, for Merlin's sake." She had been scolding Severus for years. She loved him, as a very dear friend, and knew that he considered her one as well, even though he had trouble showing it in front of students. He, for some reason, deemed it necessary to appear aloof and just evil in front of his students and anyone he wasn't close to.
"Don't say that!" He growled, still keeping his voice low. It would do no good for him to lose control in front of the entire school. "We are not equals."
"You both took the Potion – you both need each other like you need water. How is that not equals?" She demanded.
How could he tell her that that was one of the most degrading things he had ever been told. To be an equivalent to James Potter's son? It makes sense, what she's saying... but no, it's not true. "In the Bond only." He said stiffly. "Not otherwise."
She snorted. "Of course not, Severus." She patted his arm. "But all the details of the Bond deserve to be shared. He needs to know."
"And he will." Severus knew it was a losing battle arguing with Minerva. "I'll tell him."
"I ate something bad." Harry told his fellow Gryffindors for what seemed like the hundredth time that day, at lunch. So far Harry had felt fine, not sick at all. He had pretended not to notice Snape's stares and angry looks throughout the day, and didn't know why he was getting them. It wasn't like he was hiding in the nearest broom closet and shagging Ginny – she just like to hold his hand as they walked the corridors. And even if he was shagging Ginny every second he got, it wasn't like that was Snape's business.
"So it wasn't any Dark Lord stuff?" Seamus looked disappointed.
Harry shook his head. "That stuff is done for good, Seamus – you know that."
"So did Madame Pomfrey have any weird Potions to give you, to make you feel better?" An actual seventh year, not a student that was actually a year older than the seventh years should be, asked.
"No." Was all Harry said. Which was true – he had been given so many Potions since his first visit to the infirmary that very few seemed "weird" to him. Though he could think of a couple Potions that he wished he had never heard of, like Contineo Potion.
"You've no interesting information to give us, just that you had a a bad piece of meat?" Ron asked. "Come on – no one else got sick. Why only you?"
Harry hadn't thought that part of his lie that thoroughly. "I don't know." He rolled his eyes. "Expect me to have all the answers, what don't you?"
"I think you're lying, mate." Ron whispered in Harry's ear. "A stomachache doesn't make you black out – come on, mate."
"Shut up." Harry found himself hissing. "Not another word – to anyone!" He quickly got into a conversation with a fellow Gryffindor about the upcoming Quidditch match, which was supposed to take place that weekend. But truth be told, Harry's mind was on anything but Quidditch.
For once, Ron! For once you had to think, just when I didn't want you to! That means Hermione has already got my 'illness' connected to Snape... He looked over at his bushy-haired friend, who had her nose in Transfiguration Today. With any luck, maybe she had bought his story.
He squirmed, wishing he could get the knot out of his stomach. It felt like a pit, really... it almost hurt it was so unbearable. He knew it was just because of how unsettling his situation was, and how he felt about it, but he still hated it. It made him feel so miserable, and kept his mind on his worries more than he would have liked.
It only took a glance over at the Head table to see that Snape was looking calculatingly at him. Harry shot up a look that pretty much summed up his feelings – it said "sod off". Apparently Snape understood, because he shot back a look before turning to his meal. A look that Harry was pretty sure said "five points from Gryffindor".
Harry pushed his plate away from him and laid his head on his arms down on the table. He just wanted to go to sleep, to find it all a bad dream... he was tired of the truth. He wished that Dumbledore would have not told him the truth, for once.
