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Chpts 7?
Days Like These
The next four days passed swiftly with him seeing actually more of Harry as he walked around the school with his friends during classes, instead of staying in the chambers. But he didn't actually talk with him that much, with him always on the move. But he was happy Potter was out socializing again and it seemed to be doing well for him, more than coming out of his shell he was gaining weight and not around the stomach yet but some body mass.
Mrs. Weasley terrorized him over meals while Weasley shook his head at Harry's attempts to waylay her. They walked around the school grounds and talked by the lake. They had even ventured into Hogsmeade together over the weekend, Harry coming back late evening, chattering and laughing to him.
But then the fifth day of their stay came and the Weasley family was preparing to leave. Harry was in the chambers talking to them for the last time while their baby boy slept close by. The twin girls were off with Minerva and the Headmaster, being plied with lemon drops most likely, Severus smiled satirically from his armchair next to Harry's. That would teach them to let Albus babysit.
"Keep eating well. Put more proteins and carbs in your diet. And don't you dare slack off! And if you're going to be using the anti-nausea potion until that symptom passes at least take advantage and eat some food after. And…"
"Hermione." Harry whined. "I love you to pieces, really, but I'm not your kid. And I've heard it all before. Twice."
His lips curled more as he watched Harry cower under his friend's glare before his eyes turned to Weasley, who was watching him. He arched an eyebrow, eyes narrowing and waited until he looked away. No backbone, he snorted to himself.
"…visit again before you have your child. And you have no excuse for not visiting the Burrow during the holidays. And you can write to both of us now too. Here's our address…" Mrs. Weasley went on.
"And remember all the advice we gave you…especially about Draco." Ron added.
"Which piece would that be? Shoot him, burn him, Avada him, forget him…?" Harry quipped back.
"The looking elsewhere piece." Weasley's wife stared at Harry until his eyes lowered, flicking around and a blush stained his cheeks. "Yes. And Professor…"
"What?" Severus said evenly looking from Harry to her.
"Here's a copy of our address for you too. If anything happens to Harry or he needs us…"
Severus nodded taking the slip of parchment. "Of course Mrs. Weasley."
"Hermione please. And Ron. We're not students anymore." She said firmly standing.
"Ah. Her-mione, then?" Severus' lips twisted. "Weasley."
Ron rolled his eyes. "Yeah Harry. I think it is an affectionate nickname for us, to him. Potter and Weasley."
Harry stood suddenly, face still slightly red. "Let me walk you guys out."
Severus wandered into his workroom to being his batch of Calming potions and Pepper-Up draughts for the next week's Infirmary stock, one ear listening for the sound of Potter's return.
It was strange that his friends were trying to reach out to him. Had Harry told them something…well, what could Potter have said? He thought cuttingly to himself. More likely…it was something that Gran…Hermione, had said to him! Then again Weasley seemed smarter than he had when he went to school here. It seemed they had tried to steer Harry along the path to looking forward.
Just now to see if Potter had listened. Severus snorted as he started the base for the potions in twelve large caldrons.
Ron looked to Hermione with a slightly tilted head and grimace as he walked behind Harry. His wife smiled back before turning her attention to Harry.
"You know Harry, I know you don't think of Severus as you know, dating material but if you start getting out again, maybe it'll help you move on."
"Not this again." Harry ruffled his hair with one hand as he blushed. "I'm not interested, okay? Besides he…he's interested in someone else and he would not date someone unless it was serious. Severus wants to settle down. I couldn't use him…WHY am I even explaining? The answer is no! Gods! Now I have to get Severus and…sex out of my head!"
Hermione blinked in surprise. "He's interested in someone else? Not Remus…?"
"No. That's over. But Remus told me the reason why they broke up. It was because Severus was in love with someone else. And I shouldn't really be telling you this…" Harry looked over his shoulder before turning back to whisper. "It's really private to him and he obviously really cares about whoever it is so I'm not going to go…sticking myself in there. Lose that idea."
Hermione arched an eyebrow. "I can't believe he's interested in someone else Harry…I mean," She shrugged a shoulder. "He seems…attached to you."
"It's just like how people thought you were my girlfriend because we were close friends." Harry waved away lightly. "Just because we live together and we're both gay and we're sort of friends we're not going to jump each other!" Harry flushed uncomfortably. "Can we drop this?" He hissed as they approached the lobby.
"Sure. Personally, it's turning my stomach." Ron said. He shuddered as he approached Albus and Professor McGonagall. "Thanks for watching the kids."
"No problem. They were a joy." Albus twinkled as the girls ranwildly around his legs. "All ready?"
"Yes. We'll just walk out past the gate and get the Knight bus to take us to the airport." Hermione shook her head as she fixed the girls' clothes after catching them. "Muggle airports need some better organization, it's always such a rush! Anyway, we have to hurry, we are a bit late."
"Bye." Harry said quietly standing aside.
"Don't miss us too much." Ron joked. "We'll be back."
"And you'll keep in touch won't you?" Hermione waited until he nodded with a small grin. "Good. Bye Albus, Minerva." She hugged them both before taking the girls' hands and starting to walk down the steps. Ron had the baby in his arms and grinned before following. Harry looked after them, despondently and waved.
They were gone before any of them turned from the doors. Harry looked at both his professors and smiled crookedly.
"I miss them already."
"Soon you'll have that." Albus smiled kindly. "Don't worry."
Harry swallowed. "I better head back down. Severus would have started brewing for the afternoon."
He was grateful as he got further away and they didn't call and rushed the rest of the way back, slamming the portrait behind him as he fled into his dungeon chambers.
He took a deep breath as he looked around the room slowly. He needed to do something with his life. He wanted what Ron and Hermione had…so bad. He couldn't stay here, he had to get out on his own. And find a man he could actually date, Harry thought with a flush.
"Harry?" A frowning black-crowned face stuck out of Severus' workroom doorway and Harry turned his flushed face there.
"Yeah, uhh. Sorry, about slamming the door. I'm okay. They left." Harry expelled in a hurried breath, smiling fakely.
He kept smiling as the man came out narrowed eyes on him. "It helped then. Your friends talked some sense into you." Harry's smile faded as he gaped. "I am glad they came then…to give you some direction."
"What…what if I said that I'm leaving?" Harry said spontaneously.
"If that's what you need to do to move on." The Potions Master said evenly. "I have twelve caldrons on but they don't require ingredients being added for an hour now. If you want to discuss…"
Harry stepped forward awkwardly before taking Severus' hand and leading him over to the couch. "There is something I want to talk to you about." Harry settled into the couch after releasing the hand and breathed deeply as Severus sat stiffly next to him. "I just got this idea…about, how to move on."
"And your deduction is?" The professor asked clipped.
"Firstly. Umm, you've been out of the dating loop since Remus right? And you know, since I've been here I've…umm, never seen you go out…" Harry rushed out. "And I hope I'm not holding you back from who you may want…So I'm figuring you probably want me to go…in case I'm cramping your style."
There was a small pause before the professor turned to him slightly on the couch and stared.
"Is that…" The dark head shook. "No. I don't think I'm going back out into dating like that. So you don't need to worry about that. You are free to stay here as long as you need to. But you said you had an idea…?"
"Well, I just thought of it. Maybe I could buy back the place where my parents' house was in Godric's Hollow. Build a house. Make myself a family." Harry finished quietly. "I want to one day have what Ron and Hermione have and I don't see…myself getting that living in here with you. I mean, I can't expect to stay here with a baby…you couldn't live like that."
"Perhaps." Severus said quietly. "You could do it I suppose…if you got a good muggle construction company and got a few wizards in on it…do you require assistance?"
Harry smiled widely. "I'd like that. I'd like to start as soon as possible. But first I'll help you with your potions." He hesitated. "I know I've never said it but…thank you so much." Harry hugged the stiff man in his arms tightly with a squeeze before letting go. "You don't know how much you've helped me. But enough, let's go bottle some potions."
Two weeks had passed since Potter deducted his brilliant plan to rebuild his parents house. He'd got the money from his vaults and easily bid enough to make the Magical Historical Authority forget why they wanted the house ruins in the first place and had even started planning the layout and design he wanted with his help. But something else had come up since.
"Bloody…buggering…HELL!" The shout came from inside Potter's private chambers.
"Kill yourself more quietly Potter." Severus muttered from behind his paper.
"Dammit…" The door opened and Potter stomped out angrily, making Severus look up, then his eyebrows rose swiftly. "Look at this!"
Oh, he was looking. He might have been willowy as hell but he did have definition…and his nipples were a most intriguing shade. Like raspberries. His eyebrows had to be somewhere in his hair as he wondered the point of Harry coming out bare torso-ed to show him all his peaches and cream coloured skin, peach, where the sun had touched…cream where, not, he looked down to the unbuttoned and unzipped jeans. His eyes followed the light trail of black hair from his navel down…down, until the trail became extensive, then he looked away. And obviously Potter was not wearing underwear…
"…designer jeans and slack barely three months ago! I remember I almost had a fit over the price and now LOOK!"
"Look at what?" He grated out. He'd had enough of looking. His libido couldn't take the teasing anymore, if the ache in his groin meant anything. What was the point of this parade of half-nakedness?
"I'm getting fat!" Harry tugged up the jeans again but they weren't moving upwards at all and seemed stuck around his thighs where they were rather snug. "I can't get them up anymore even without under…"
Severus lifted his paper and shook his head hopelessly as Harry yelped and sat suddenly at the kitchen table across from him.
"Are you quite done?" Severus ventured out after a minute. Harry managed to stop staring at the table and blushing embarrassedly long enough to look up and nod before looking away. "Good. I'd inform you then that this sort of thing tends to happen when you're gaining weight and pregnant." He drawled mockingly.
"But already?" Harry's voice was a whine. There wasn't anything else to call it but a pathetic whine, that grated…strangely on his heartstrings.
"Yes. You've been eating well for about a month now and I'd guess your stomach would begin to grow now too…so,"
"Bugger." Harry muttered. "Well…at least it wasn't my money I guess…I'd be really pissed then."
"Draco bought those clothes for you?"
"Yes, I told you. He liked me to look good. Combed back hair and all that. If he could see me now." Harry laughed, shaking his shaggy head where the black feathery locks had grown. "I think I'll go into Hogmeade and buy some oversized T-shirts and some worn jeans. If I'm going to be fat I'm going to be fat and comfortable. And I can always resize Draco's things for going out." He stood awkwardly from the table, tugging on the pants again as he turned away. "Err, and sorry for…umm, interrupting your reading."
"Oh it was my pleasure." He smirked lifting his paper as Potter ran off. Gods it was too easy. He shifted in his seat and shook out his paper.
That afternoon Harry returned with two bags full of second hand clothes and changed into a shirt and jeans immediately, pretending to lounge around like a whale.
"I don't get the satisfaction of doing this all day…how did Dudley do it?" Severus hummed from behind his potion's book. He had tests to set for O.W.L's and N.E.W.T exams and no time to listen to Harry ramble. "…around and eating and drinking all day. Well, Dudley and Uncle Vernon anyway. I think Aunt Petunia was schizophrenic or something. You know, when you're sick with that disease that makes you all hyper and a neat freak…or is that Obsessive Compulsive?"
"Potter…" Severus hissed, squeezing his nose bridge as he looked up.
"Huh?" He stared for a moment as Potter twisted on the couch onto his stomach to look at him at his desk. The wide, green eyes blinked innocently…happily at him and he realized Harry probably didn't usually get to talk freely and openly like this unless with his close friends. Draco certainly wouldn't have allowed it.
He waved a hand vaguely. "A bit softer please? And it's obsessive compulsive disorder."
"So then Draco shows up and he sees Hermione and Ron there and he's like…" Harry paused in telling his story to stare at the parchment he was correcting for Severus. "Err, since when does a potion to cure boils contain a bezoar?"Severus looked over from his desk to Harry who was lounging on the floor with a pillow and shook his head. "Since the first years don't listen. Give it a D."
"But…they got the rest right. Sort of…" Harry scanned the paper again. "See if you added a bezoar you'd have poisoned the potion but if they'd used the shrivelfigs and done what they have here it would have worked. Come on, a C+."
Severus swiveled his chair and glared. "I never give out marks that are not deserved."
"A C?" Harry frowned.
"No." He turned back around and turned to the parchment he was correcting.
"A C-." Harry saw his back stiffen and grinned internally. He was such a softie. "Pleeease?" He pouted just as Severus shot him a look and widened his eyes as the man scowled.
"Fine."
"Okay. And since we did that everyone gets booted up one grade point." Harry pulled out his wand to make the changes.
"Let's make a deal…if I do that you have to eat something I make you for dessert."
Harry arched an eyebrow. "Like what?"
"Something delicious and nutritious. I've wanted someone to test it on."
"Is this some sort of mad scientist potion you've been concocting?" Harry asked dubiously.
"No. Deal or no deal? Think of the poor Gryffindors that need to go up this year…" Severus smirked.
"Fine. It can't be too bad." And then he changed the marks on all his papers as Severus upped the grades on his.
"Gods…I've actually given out two A-'s." Harry smiled widely as Severus' lip curled.
"They deserve it. You know they do. You just gave them B's because they're not Slytherins." Harry raised a hand. "And don't you deny it."
Severus 'hmph'ed' and climbed out of his chair gracefully. "Time to make dessert." He smirked wickedly.
"Where was I? So then Draco sees them and he's like, what are they doing here? And I said I asked them to come here because I'm coming out! And he, I swear, looks like he's going to die, he's that red in the face." Harry kept working until the smell of hot milk came to him and he grimaced, pushing off the floor.
"Whassat?" Harry peered around the man with the spoon into the pot of boiling milk.
"It's not done yet. So back to marking."
"Is that milk? You know I can't stand milk…Severus! I don't want it."
"Pomfrey told you. You need to have more calcium for the baby. And you hate vegetables and don't like eggs anymore. So," Severus crossed his arms and turned to Harry who was a head shorter than him but pouting. "And that's not going to work. We had a deal."
Harry's face contorted. "It smells horrid."
"You won't even know there's milk in it when I'm done. Go back and keep marking."
Half hour later Severus had joined him again and an hour after that he was tentatively nibbling at some frozen milk and cinnamon concoction.
"Well?" Severus demanded. Harry hummed and scrapped his spoon against the top.
"It's not bad. I know there's milk in it though."
"You wouldn't have known if you'd not seen it." Severus smirked proudly. "Now finish up. And perhaps the second years will get some better marks."
"Gods! You'd bloody think this child was yours." Harry muttered over his dessert as Severus left the kitchen. "You're pushier than an expectant father."
But he heard. His heart had not leapt though. No. He stomped it down roughly. Harry couldn't see himself living the life of 'happy family' with him.
This was all Albus' fault. The bastard had purposely put Harry in here with him. He was never telling that old bastard anything important about himself again. He'd been getting over his minor…okay, major, infatuation with Potter while the boy was living happily, not so happily his mind supplied, with his godson. And then he had to show up here. And be so hurt and bloody vulnerable with his bloody big green eyes and…Circe! Now he was in love with Harry 'The-Man-Who-Wouldn't-Fucking-Die' Potter.
The whole problem started in Harry's sixth year when he started training the boy and the boy had started growing into a handsome young man. It had worsened when he'd gotten to know said handsome young man the next year, found out he was gay and to top that off was coming out with his godson, he at least knew the full story behind Draco's fainting spell now. It had become infatuation when he was finding out things from Draco about Harry. How nice he was, cute, innocent…how not like James he was. And when he'd actually started talking to Harry. When they'd become allies and the boy would be fidgeting awkwardly as they talked about Draco and where Potter wanted his life to go with him. When he'd seen the boy had vision and wasn't just some teenager out for a fuck was when the major infatuation had began. Oh yes, and he knew Draco. Draco wasn't like that. But he was flexible, he'd work Harry into his plan. For a while there he'd believed Draco would do it…he'd come through and make Harry happy and he could forget him.
Then they'd started having problems and he'd had to finish with Remus because he was leading the man on to nothing and then Draco and Harry had fallen apart and then BLOODY FUCKING ALBUS!
Severus snorted through his nose angrily as he snapped at the director of a wizarding construction firm he'd hired to work on Harry's house. The man's workers must be the most incompetent arseholes on the face of the Earth. What part of the basement had to be solid twelve inch imported stone did they not understand?
"Severus…is this really all that important?" Harry whispered embarrassed next to him. "I can take another kind of stone…"
"This is the best." The Potions Master crossed his arms and glared. "What stone are the dungeons of Hogwarts made of?"
"Err, I dunno…" Harry's eyes darted around as he hissed back. "Is this important?"
"Yes! If you for instance want to use the basement for protection, this stone is the best. How do you think the dungeons stand up to the thousand explosions the children put it through a year? Why do you think Hogwarts is considered the safest place in wizarding England?"
"Okay!" Harry finally gave in throwing his hands up. "Jeez, bloody hell!" Harry pushed up from his chair in the office of the man's firm and frowned. "You keep harassing the man then, I'll be right back."
Severus narrowed his eyes on Harry's body. Over the past two weeks Harry's body had grown…and grown. He was a week into his fourth month now and under that button-up shirt he could tell that yes, Harry was pregnant. He was ashamed to say he was guilty of having been even more protective than usual.
"Where are you going?" Thank Morgana Harry humoured him.
"I'm going to the bathroom." Harry rolled his eyes and turned with his hand on the doorknob. "Would you like to come and hold my hand?"
Severus glowered as he left. Then he turned back to the wizard. "Don't think I've forgotten you. I want those stones! Twelve inches."
"Yessir." The man nodded eagerly. "Could we perhaps discuss with you some changes to…"
"The plans stay as they are." Severus sneered. He and Harry had sat together and planned that house and if he wasn't going to be bloody well living there with him he wanted to make sure Harry had a piece of him in the bloody house. And he'd be secure. Because this house was going to be the safest in wizarding England. He was planning to go to Albus to ask him to cast the spells on the house foundation also. Harry was more powerful but with him being pregnant he couldn't overtax himself.
"Perhaps then the furnishings…"
"We don't want…! Harry doesn't want," Severus gathered himself. "More expensive furniture. It's fine. Simple, tasteful and fitting. That's it."
"Perhaps then some decoration to…"
"What part of there are other wizarding construction and designing firms don't you understand? We can go somewhere else you know!"
"Severus!" Harry opened the door with an angry hiss. "I can hear you down the hall." He shut the door behind himself and frowned. "Please." He returned to his seat and smiled at the man. "I'm sorry…what were you saying?"
Severus leaned back and smirked. Was grinning nastily outright by the time Harry had shot down everything the man suggested.
"Told you." He hissed spitefully. The man frowned at him as Harry rolled his eyes again.
"My friend is not the most…personable but if he tells you something, just listen okay? He knows what I want." Harry stood again. "We'll just Floo out then. Come on Severus."
He shot the man another triumphant look as he followed Harry into the Floo and when they reentered his chambers shook out his robes, loftily.
"But you didn't have to be so hard on him."
"That's how it works Potter." Severus arched an eyebrow imposingly. "Screaming at wayward people makes them see the light. Obey and there's no screaming. Simple."
"Unless of course those wayward people are Gryffindors." Harry smiled widely heading for the kitchen. "It never worked on us!"
"I'll have you know many a Gryffindor has cowered as I have insulted their heritage, intelligence and ancestry in twenty words or less, in a warning hiss. Then I escalate to doing it in a shout if they ignore the warning." Severus strode after him and set himself down at the table to watch Potter scavenge in his fridge.
"Unnhhh…" A whine started from behind the door. "Don't you have any chocolate?"
"Do I look like a chocolate person Potter?" He stretched his legs under the table. "I believe I told you two days ago, I do not buy chocolates."
"Well you're not buying them for yourself. You're buying them for me!" Harry stood from behind the door and clipped it shut. "I see bloody iron tablets popping up everywhere and you suddenly cooking desserts every single bloody day with milk and NO bloody chocolates!"
"Pomfrey said nothing about you needing sugars." He replied flatly.
"Severus!" Harry threw himself into the chair across from him dramatically. "I'm craving, damn you. I neeeeed the chocolate."
He crossed his arms and stared.
"Please?" Harry beseeched. "Don't make me have to go visit Albus to get lemon drops…" he covered his hands with his face. "It's enough I've already gained twelve pounds and this kid isn't even done growing in me yet…but I need the sugar dammit! I need it like a junkie needs a fix!"
"I'll get you a box for your birthday." He finally capitulated darkly. "Stop whining and eat a yogurt. Which you needed ever so bloody badly from Minerva. Or have a few Bott beans. Who got you those again? Mrs. Weasley when you wrote her about your 'horrible cravings'?"
Harry flushed. "I needed those when I needed them."
"Hmm."
"Please?" Harry tried again softly.
"Birthday." He muttered back. "Now please be quiet. I have tests to correct in these last two weeks of the year. And I don't want to hear you whining in the background."
Oh Gods no…His eye twitched as Potter's bottom lip stuck out ever so slightly. He was not buying him any chocolates. He could play that with Minerva and Albus and Hagrid and Mother Weasley but that was not going to bloody work on him!
"Fine!" Harry pushed up with a light grunt. "I'm going to go talk over my house plans with Albus."
"Take the short cut. Slow on the stairs. Call for Fawkes if you need help." Severus stood with a simulated yawn as he headed to his desk.
"Bastard."
A/N: don't you just love these sweet scenes of domes...domesticity?...domescislitty? Domesticated-ness! #bloody hell! I think my vocabulary ran away!#
Anyway, while I'm still coherent...#HA!# Umm, I'll try to update during this week. I'm sure you've noticed I've been only updating on weekends but last night I forgot so I still have to post something else tomorrow...or maybe Tuesday. Hang in there people!
