Harry kept a closer eye on the potions master after that. He sent a letter to Sirius, telling him how things were going and also asked whether the other had noticed Snape acting strange at all.
He didn't receive a reply as he expected. He felt even more alone as three days passed without a response. The only thing that kept him distracted was trying to figure out what Snape's strange behaviour meant.
Umbridge had left him alone for a while, but this week he'd had another two detentions with her. He had almost forgotten that Snape had sneaked into Umbridge's office with the intention of deactivating the quill. For a second Harry convinced himself that he had heard wrong when he'd been spying on the man. Yet, when he put the quill on parchment, as it wrote the first line, as his wound re-opened, the pain was not there. He stared at his hand and rubbed the wound experimentally. It felt smooth, as if it were only an illusion.
Umbridge came round to sit in her chair, smile sweetly at him and drink her tea. Harry did not welcome the silence that came from the absent cats on the walls. He looked at his hand and wrote a new line, faking a wince here and there. It seemed to please Umbridge enough to not suspect anything and Harry continued.
Snape had done that. Snape had deactivated the quill and respelled it to show an illusion of what it was meant to do. All while sneaking around Umbridge.
Harry found himself quite impressed. His gratitude, however, was not enough to stop him from following Snape to try and catch him talking to whomever it was he was talking to. So far, Snape hadn't slipped up.
oOoOoOo
"Harry's following us again." Potter said and Severus tried to gather some patience from whatever out-of-reach dimensions it resided in.
"I don't care, I need these potion ingredients. I can't put it off any longer." Severus said, placing a row of empty vials in a charmed box that fit in his pocket yet could handle a whole cupboard of vials.
"Good, fresh air, Harry needs that." Potter said and Severus rolled his eyes.
"I'm not doing it for him." He grumbled. The boy's subtlety was non-existent. If he didn't have James Potter distracting him most of the day he would have noticed the boy following him instantly. Nonetheless Potter told him the moment it started and the boy had not yet used the invisibility cloak. Not that they knew, in any case. Neither of them knew whether the brat could be seen by James under the cloak or not.
oOoOoOo
Harry made his way through the forest, making sure to keep an eye on Snape at all times. It made him trip a couple of times until the ground evened out slightly and he heard a haunting call nearby. Harry looked up to see the strange horses he'd seen at the start of the year.
When he turned to find Snape, the potions master had already disappeared. He muttered a curse under his breath and came out from hiding. He sighed and turned to leave when a small one approached him. Harry stared at the peculiar creature.
It chirped brightly as it paced around him. Its eyes a cloudy white.
"Hey little guy." Harry knelt down to its level and tried to extend his hand to him. The animal chirped, smelled his hand and came closer. He could see himself vaguely reflected in the mist within the creature's eyes.
Two shapes came up behind him and he turned.
He only saw Snape.
"The Forbidden Forest, Potter, was not named thusly for mere shock value." Harry frowned and looked around for the other shape.
"Is someone with you, Professor?"
"Hallucinating, Potter? I certainly hope your trip to the forest wasn't in search of Belladonna."
"Bella-what?"
Snape walked past him and reached for the black berries and red flowers in a collection of bushes nearby.
"Deadly Nightshade. Will have you roaming the forest in a wild state of delirium when consumed." He looked up at him as the berries and flowers were bottled separately. "And then it will kill you."
"Well, as long as I find a goat and eat the stone in its stomach I'll be fine." Snape shot him a nasty glare and Harry figured he should have known better than to try and joke with Snape. Harry stared at the potions master. "No, professor. I wasn't looking for that." Last thing he needed was the Prophet declaring that Harry was taking something like that, or worse, spreading hallucinogenic berries through the student population.
One of the winged horses came closer to Snape and sniffed at his clothes. Snape turned and shooed the creature back as he walked past the bushes. Harry followed.
"You can see them too?" Harry asked.
"The thestrals? Yes." Harry was surprised the other answered instead of sending him off to the school with a promise of detention. Had someone replaced him and polyjuiced into Snape? Snape kept collecting flower petals, flower seeds, finding magical creatures in nests he seemed to know how to locate and plucking the required ingredients here and there. Harry was surprised and a little fascinated to see the sources of most of his potions ingredients.
"Why can't anyone else see them? Only Luna from Ravenclaw can see them, that I know of." Harry said. Snape paused and turned to him.
"They can only be seen by those who have seen death." He said.
"And… you've seen death?" Snape scoffed at that.
"I'm a DeathEater. I've been acquainted with death far too many times."
"I'm sorry." The words slipped. It seemed natural to say. Snape rolled his eyes and came closer.
"Don't apologise for what you had no control over." He reached out and grabbed Harry's hand, studying the bruising. The scars had now gone.
"The quill doesn't work anymore… but I didn't let her know that." Harry said. Snape rose an eyebrow at that.
"If that is true, consider me impressed. I didn't expect you to be proficient enough in charms to break such an item." Snape said and walked away once more.
Harry narrowed his eyes at Snape and followed. "I know it was you. I saw you go to her office."
"Accusations, Potter?" Snape asked.
"I just… don't understand what's happening."
"Nothing you should concern yourself with. Focus on your OWLs."
Harry stared at the man as he continued collecting ingredients. "Who the hell can focus on some stupid exams when the second most powerful wizard in Britain is trying to kill you." Harry mumbled.
"To my knowledge, the Dark Lord has been trying to kill you for a while."
"Yeah, but now he can touch me without turning to ashes. It wasn't exactly pleasant when he did it at the graveyard."
Snape seemed to freeze and turned to look at him. His eyes seemed to flicker to something Harry couldn't see and with a semi-resigned expression turned to look at him.
"What happened at the graveyard, Potter?"
Harry looked at him shocked. Was Snape actually asking? "You know already. Sirius knows, so you as a spy should know."
"Did you tell Black?" Snape countered.
"I… no." He shrugged. "Dumbledore must have told the Order."
"He was vague on the details. I want you to tell me what happened at the graveyard."
Harry winced and looked away as the Thestrals begun moving closer, hovering around that spot that Snape kept glancing at discretely. He began playing with the cuff of his jumper. He couldn't get the words out.
"No one believes me. That he's back." He said instead.
Snape didn't respond at first but he also didn't move to leave. "Some people are fools. They pretend that all is well by denying truths and pushing their reality onto others." He looked away and then back at him. "However, not everyone is as stupid as Fudge. One would think your so-called friends would believe you." Harry shrugged and followed Snape as the man spotted some fireflies and followed them to their nest, harvesting the fire-proof leaves of the bush they resided in. "Seems like the Dark Lord has you right where he wants you."
Harry looked up at that. "What do you mean? Did he say something? Ow!" Harry stayed back from the firefly nest as one scorched him lightly.
"It seems only logical. If I were the Dark Lord, I would want my enemy to feel as alone as possible. Despite what your glorious ego might have led you to believe, having you as an opponent, with no support from all your little friends?" Snape smirked as he looked him up and down with disdain, making Harry feel even more pathetic than he already felt. "Well, it's simply laughable how unthreatening you actually are."
Harry glared, anger surging as he stormed off. Still, he couldn't help but realise. Maybe Snape was right.
"Potter." Harry stopped once more at the sound of his name. The dour potions master came closer and looked as annoyed by this interaction as Harry imagined he would be. He handed Harry an old tattered book with the cover faded. Harry turned to read the spine, where the barely legible 'Potions' could be read.
It was the same as his year 4 book, except much older, with many side notes and tips and advice scrawled on the side by its previous owner. A 'half-blood Prince'. Harry hadn't even known there was any kind of royalty in the wizarding world.
Harry had no idea what to say.
"Call it supplementary reading. It helped me during my time here. Should you actually wish it, it could help improve your potions grade."
Harry looked up at him with a mixture of confusion, surprise and mild hope swirling inside him. He'd read the chapters the potions master had recommended and it actually had helped him. It was how Harry realised that all the questions Snape asked to try and put them on the spot usually came from those summary sections at the end of each chapter.
With Defense being hell on earth, Potions was slowly turning into a more likable subject.
"Now, if you could cease your incessant following, perhaps you could concentrate more on your work."
Harry felt heat burn his face. "Following?"
"In case you forgot, Potter, I'm a spy. If I couldn't tell when an untrained and clumsy fifteen-year-old was following me around, I'd already be dead." Snape turned him by the shoulders and shoved him lightly in the direction of the castle. "Now get yourself back to the castle. And detention." Snape said.
Harry turned shocked. "What? Why?" He exclaimed.
"Number one, for going into the forbidden forest. Number two, for following someone you know for sure is a DeathEater into said forest, with no one else knowing your location. Anyone else and you'd already be at the Dark Lord's mercy." Snape said and Harry glared. Snape glared back and Harry frowned, holding the book tighter against him.
It was frustrating. Harry wasn't used to this Snape. Harry wasn't used to having this feeling that he could trust the potions master. Especially when he knew the other was still hiding something.
Harry turned and left, rushing back to the castle.
OOoOoOo
James watched his boy run off to the castle with mixed feelings.
"You gave him that book in the end. As if he needs to stress about stupid exams. You should be getting him to talk about that graveyard incident. This was the perfect chance."
Snape scoffed and returned to his collecting of ingredients. A boring and tedious task as far as James was concerned.
"He wasn't going to talk. That brat doesn't trust a single grown wizard. Running up and down the corridors since first year, getting into trouble, trying to handle things on his own."
"Who was he supposed to trust? From what I gather, you've always been a bastard to him."
Snape turned to him, angry. "You have the nerve to say that to me?"
"Perhaps my son doesn't trust adults, because he was raised by muggles that treated him like garbage for as long as he could remember. Maybe he doesn't trust adults because when he came here you kept sending him back there. What was there to trust?"
"Don't you put the blame on me! If Potter had a problem, it was the headmaster's duty to resolve it."
"Well he didn't. Now I'm here. So gain his confidence enough to talk about it. I'm sure what I saw was only a glimpse of what his life has been like. I did not die for my son to suffer knowing there isn't anyone out there who will do whatever they can to stop him from suffering."
"Others have gone through similar things and survived." Snape countered.
"Are we still talking about Harry? Or about you?" James knew he was walking on thin ice whenever he tried to talk to Snape about helping Harry. The way he treated Severus didn't help him any. Snape glared intensely and finally huffed.
"Fine. In detention. I'll ask him and won't let him back out from talking. Sound adequate to you, your majesty?" Snape hissed.
"Why Snape, no need to call me 'your majesty'. You're the Prince after all." James laughed and floated away after Harry, leaving Snape seething in anger and embarrassment.
He floated over to the school, finding Harry easily. He smiled warmly as his son reached out to his friends only for the moment to be ruined by professor McGonagall arguing with that horrid toad-faced woman.
