AN: This chapter is dedicated to all my Python friends from VH. Most
specifically, LC for the marshmallows and Shyri for the garlic ones. And
then there's Salena, Lily and Beth, and too many others to mention here.
And that's just counting the Pythons.
I'm apt to change POV's randomly. I apologise. It's likely to be mainly from Harry's POV from now on, only switching to Sev's when there's something I want him to observe.
This hasn't been betaed by the way, so forgive me my mistakes.
To the reviews!
Cosmic Reindeer: More slashy hints? ^_^ I think I can arrange that!
Mikee! I think Dumbledore just might be matchmaking. Don't you just love it? I'm glad you liked my broom. And I think I've finally figured out how to get them together!
Sarah: Well, Harry WAS almost put in Slytherin.
xikum: .... Your reviews are always so well thought out and everything. They're a great help for inspiration. Thank you. You probably can't figure out whether or not Sev will be returned to his 'old' form because not even I know just yet. The whole magic thing: Well, I have to go into further depths about that in the assignment for DADA, so you'll just have to wait and see.
Katy999: They certainly won't be researching an unforgivable. Can you say 'yawn'? Thanks for your review tho'. I like getting them from you.
Lee Lee: Loving you story. ^_^ You like smart-arse Sev? I think he's funny.
M. F. Luder: =P Okay, you still have me seriously confused over this home country thing. *scratches head* I'm thinking islands, but I don't quite know. It's good you weren't offended. I'd hate to lose a loyal reviewer over that chapter.
Jess the Great: About the Slytherin head: Professor Vector is it at the moment. As I don't know whether or not he'll actually be changed back, I can't say if he'll be the head again.
Quickjewel: Glad you found it sweet. Here's the more:
Me: hello me. Ooo, I love hearing people say my work is creative. Thank you!
Saavik: *L* Thank you.
Chapter Nine: S'mores, anyone?
On his way back from the library, Severus paused in a window aperture and gazed out over the grounds. Or he would have, had he been able to see past the rain lashing the windows. It was barely seven o'clock and already it was as black as midnight out there. Well, except for when lightening split the sky.
Severus snorted. What a cliche. But it *was* a dark and stormy night. The wind tore the window open and darted into the hall. Severus pulled his school robes tighter about his shoulders. And *cold*. As he reached to push the window closed again, Severus caught his reflection in the glass. His cheeks were rosy with the chill. And then they weren't. They burnt hot as he flushed.
Over two weeks after the........ er........ the........ um......... the *hexing* incident, and Severus was still resolutely not thinking about it. Or at least he was resolutely *attempting* to not think about it. It insisted on popping into his mind at the most inopportune moments. Like every morning when he went to relieve himself. And every time he saw Ha- Potter. And each time he heard Har- *Potter's* voice. Not to mention every DADA class. And at times like this: his red cheeks had reminded him of the brilliant blush both he and the Gryffindor had worn all that night.
As Severus continued on his way back to his room, he spared a thought to hope that he would have the apartments to himself tonight. It was a Friday, and earlier at dinner, he had overheard H- Potter's friends speaking of meeting later that night, which gave him hope.
Severus shivered again as icy fingers of damp air whispered over his exposed ears and brushed his hand across the upturned palm of Beautten. He was looking forward to stretching out on the couch in front of the fire. The statute stepped aside and Severus pushed open the door.
He almost groaned as his hopes for a peaceful night were dashed. He stopped and stared at the scene before him.
The red-headed Weasley boy was stretched right across were Severus wanted to lie, one arm tucked behind his head and the opposite hand clutching a long stick, charred at one end. Sitting primly at his head, in the chair Potter usually occupied was the muggle-born witch. She had a long, burnt stick in her hands too, and a brown paper bag besides. On the small table between the chairs was a tray holding several mugs more than was required for the number of people, a steaming pot of some warm beverage, stacks of biscuits, and thin slabs of chocolate.
And sitting in *Severus's* armchair, right before the hearth, his stick - providing the answer to the charred ends - in the fire burning merrily in the grate, was Potter.
The door thumped against Severus's heels as it swung shut and the sound attracted the attention of the trio by the fire. The four students stared at each other for a long moment. Then there was a soft hiss and Weasley turned back to the hearth.
"Harry," he exclaimed, effectively breaking the tableau, "Your marshmallow's on fire!"
Potter spun back to the hearth and wrenched his stick out of the hearth, the marshmallow on the end burning merrily. In the process of putting it out, he burnt his fingers and swore, causing Weasley to laugh. Granger turned to berate the red-head and Severus decided to take advantage of their distraction and slip away.
He'd made it to his bedroom door before anyone noticed.
"Seven!"
Severus repressed a sigh and turned. The trio was watching him again: Potter juggling the burnt marshmallow, Weasley with his head tipped back over the arm of the couch and Granger twisted about in her seat to face him. It had been her that had spoken. He looked at her without saying a word.
Granger smiled and gestured towards the hearth, "Why don't you join us?"
Severus opened his mouth to decline, but he was interrupted.
"Yeah, come on Sev. We're making s'mores!" Weasley had spun around and was now sitting up on the couch, patting the cushion next to him. Severus stared at him, aghast. No one had ever called him *Sev* before. In front of the fire, Potter snorted.
Severus glared at him. Potter caught his eye, shrugged and grinned. Then the eye contact lingered a little too long and they both flushed. Potter looked hastily away. That decided Severus. He would stay just to *spite* the other boy.
He looked back at Granger and nodded curtly. She smiled.
Severus off-loaded his books onto his desk before moving to take the opposite end of the couch from Weasley. Unfortunately, this put him closest to Potter, who seemed to have covered. Just as Severus sat down, he heard an almost inaudible hiss, "Bet you've never been called 'Sev' before."
The comment was followed by a distinct snigger, but since Potter wouldn't meet his eyes, Severus had no choice but to ignore him. He turned instead to the boy next to him, "What are s'mores?"
He was the centre of attention again. It was beginning to get tedious.
"You've never had s'mores before?" Weasley managed to sound horrified, affronted and amused all in one go.
Severus drew himself up, "And so what if I haven't?
"You don't know what you've been missing out on!"
Another stick was produced from somewhere and shoved unceremoniously into his hand. He turned to see Potter doing the shoving.
"Here, you need a stick to toast the marshmallows-" Granger held out the brown paper bag and Severus automatically took it, "- And then you've toasted the marshmallow, you put it on top of the chocolate and place them both between two biscuits."
A slab of chocolate and two biscuits materialised in his lap, courtesy of Weasley. Severus blinked. Slowly, he drew a marshmallow from the brown paper bag and held it in one hand. He looked between the charred end of his stick and the sugary confectionery for a moment, before bringing them together and trying to get the marshmallow to stay on the end of the stick. It fell off. He tried again, only to have it fall into his lap once more.
Several attempts and one mangled marshmallow later, a pair of hands appeared next to his on the stick. One hand held the stick steady, while the other plucked the sorry-looking marshmallow from it precarious perch and carried it away. Transfixed, Severus watched the hand carry the marshmallow up to soft lips. He swallowed when a pink tongue slipped out to curl around the sweet and draw it into the warm cavern of the mouth. He blinked and looked up into green eyes.
Both Harry and Severus flushed, but Harry didn't release Severus's hand on the toasting stick. Harry took a new marshmallow from the bag and put it in Severus's free hand. Taking that hand in his own, he guided it to the point of the stick and helped Severus press the marshmallow firmly onto it.
"You have to push it down fairly hard to get it to stay," he said, as he abruptly let go of both the stick and Severus and sat back. Severus flushed and looked away.
Ron slapped him on the back, "Right, now you've got to stick the marshmallow in the fire to toast it. But don't put it in too deep, or leave it there too long, or you'll end up burning like Harry did."
Severus nodded and concentrated on inserting his marshmallow into the fire. It was better than concentrating on the eyes on the side of his face, or the looks being passed between the other occupants of the room.
A minute later, Severus judged the marshmallow to be toasted to perfection and he withdrew it from the flames. He burnt his fingers slightly removing the hot sweet from the stick, but he managed to put together the 's'more' with no further mishaps. He held it in his hands and looked at it. The chocolate was beginning to melt under the heat of the toasted marshmallow.
He looked up and met the expectant gazes of the three Gryffindors.
"Well, go on!" exclaimed Hermione, "Eat it!"
Severus eyed the creation in his hands dubiously once more before bringing it slowly to his mouth and biting into it. It was one of the oddest things he had ever eaten. The milky sweetness of the chocolate offset the sugary sweetness of the marshmallow and the bland biscuits tempered to over all sweetness of them both. The texture was smooth and gooey and crunchy all in one bite. And he burnt his tongue on the marshmallow.
He dropped the rest of the s'more into his lap and fanned vainly at his burning mouth. The other three laughed. Hermione poured him a mug of the hot beverage and passed it to him. It was hot chocolate. Severus sipped at it, grateful for the even heat of it.
When his mouth had cooled down a little, he found the three friends watching him expectantly again.
"What?"
Harry smiled, "Did you like it?"
Severus retrieved his half-eaten s'more from his lap.
"It was........ different," he replied as he popped the rest in his mouth.
The Gryffindors laughed again, and this time, Severus smiled.
Ron grabbed the bag of marshmallows and mashed two onto the end of his stick. Hermione retrieved the bag from Ron and ate one un-toasted. Harry wrapped his hands around his mug of hot chocolate and brought to his lips to drink. He sighed blissfully and licked at the moustache of froth about his mouth as he set the mug back down. Severus followed his every move.
Harry caught the look and blushed. He reached for the bag of marshmallows and began making his own s'more. He handed the marshmallow to Severus and Severus copied his actions.
Ron had passed one of his toasted marshmallows to Hermione and they both were eating their s'mores. Ron lounged back against the arm of the couch.
"I wonder what these would be like with strawberry marshmallows."
Hermione grimaced, "I've had them before. It doesn't taste very nice."
"You can get strawberry marshmallows?" Severus blurted.
Ron turned to look at him, "Where have you been all your life? 'Course you can!"
Hermione swatted him, "He'd been in France, Ron. Maybe they don't have strawberry marshmallows in France."
Severus shrugged, taking the out Hermione had given him. He'd never eaten a marshmallow before this night: how was he supposed to know there were different sorts?
Harry was picking apart the s'more he had just made, eating each little bit as he snapped it off, "You know, you can get chocolate marshmallows too. Aunt Petunia used to get them all the time for Dudley; they were his favourite."
"Chocolate ones? Cor blimey, but they'd go well on a s'more!"
"Then there's those yellow ones as well. I never did figure out what flavour they were meant to be. Maybe lemon," Hermione mused.
"Or banana," suggest Harry.
Severus had eaten his second s'more as he watched the by-play between the friends and was starting on his third. He decided to join the conversation, "Or squash."
Ron snorted with laughter, "Hey yeah! Then they'd be like Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans!"
Harry, Hermione and even Severus laughed.
"Maybe we should write to Bertie Bott and get him to make Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Marshmallows. Then the yellow ones could be pineapple," laughed Harry.
"And purple eggplant-flavoured ones!" agreed Hermione.
"Green grass-flavoured ones," said Ron.
"Gray garlic-flavoured ones," said Severus.
The other three looked at him.
"Garlic-flavoured ones?"
"Why not? You can get earwax-flavoured beans, so why not garlic-flavoured marshmallows?"
"Yeah, why not? Then you could pale green peppermint-flavoured ones to clean your breath!"
The flavours got steadily worse and more outrageous from there. There was pale yellow codliver oil-flavoured ones, pale-pink medicine-flavoured ones, even black tar-flavoured ones.
All the while, the four students continued to make and eat s'mores, until at one point, Hermione paused and regarded the marshmallow in her hand and said, "You know, if you eat too many marshmallows, your stomach will bloat and push all your other organs aside. The marshmallows soak up all the moisture," before popping the marshmallow into her mouth.
The three boys turned a little green and pushed the brown paper bag away from them, settling for their hot chocolates instead. Talk then turned to outrageous stories of illnesses that each had heard of, each more unbelievable than the last.
Severus sat back for a moment, letting the conversation wash over him and watching his companions. These were Gryffindors. These three students were his rivals. He wasn't meant to be eating s'mores with them and laughing with them. He would never have been sitting her like this if he was still a Slytherin. He could never consider these people as friends.........
Harry turned to address a comment to him and Severus found himself drawn back into the conversation, which had moved onto books.
And as the night wore on, Severus found himself thinking: ~ I can't think why not. ~
TBC
AN: I know there were serious undertones when Harry was helping Severus with the marshmallow on the stick, but I did not mean them. They were unavoidable. *L*
And I know I abruptly changed from Potter, Weasley and Granger to Harry, Ron and Hermione, but I couldn't continue calling Harry 'Potter' after that incident and it sounded odd to call Ron and Hermione by their last names........
I'm apt to change POV's randomly. I apologise. It's likely to be mainly from Harry's POV from now on, only switching to Sev's when there's something I want him to observe.
This hasn't been betaed by the way, so forgive me my mistakes.
To the reviews!
Cosmic Reindeer: More slashy hints? ^_^ I think I can arrange that!
Mikee! I think Dumbledore just might be matchmaking. Don't you just love it? I'm glad you liked my broom. And I think I've finally figured out how to get them together!
Sarah: Well, Harry WAS almost put in Slytherin.
xikum: .... Your reviews are always so well thought out and everything. They're a great help for inspiration. Thank you. You probably can't figure out whether or not Sev will be returned to his 'old' form because not even I know just yet. The whole magic thing: Well, I have to go into further depths about that in the assignment for DADA, so you'll just have to wait and see.
Katy999: They certainly won't be researching an unforgivable. Can you say 'yawn'? Thanks for your review tho'. I like getting them from you.
Lee Lee: Loving you story. ^_^ You like smart-arse Sev? I think he's funny.
M. F. Luder: =P Okay, you still have me seriously confused over this home country thing. *scratches head* I'm thinking islands, but I don't quite know. It's good you weren't offended. I'd hate to lose a loyal reviewer over that chapter.
Jess the Great: About the Slytherin head: Professor Vector is it at the moment. As I don't know whether or not he'll actually be changed back, I can't say if he'll be the head again.
Quickjewel: Glad you found it sweet. Here's the more:
Me: hello me. Ooo, I love hearing people say my work is creative. Thank you!
Saavik: *L* Thank you.
Chapter Nine: S'mores, anyone?
On his way back from the library, Severus paused in a window aperture and gazed out over the grounds. Or he would have, had he been able to see past the rain lashing the windows. It was barely seven o'clock and already it was as black as midnight out there. Well, except for when lightening split the sky.
Severus snorted. What a cliche. But it *was* a dark and stormy night. The wind tore the window open and darted into the hall. Severus pulled his school robes tighter about his shoulders. And *cold*. As he reached to push the window closed again, Severus caught his reflection in the glass. His cheeks were rosy with the chill. And then they weren't. They burnt hot as he flushed.
Over two weeks after the........ er........ the........ um......... the *hexing* incident, and Severus was still resolutely not thinking about it. Or at least he was resolutely *attempting* to not think about it. It insisted on popping into his mind at the most inopportune moments. Like every morning when he went to relieve himself. And every time he saw Ha- Potter. And each time he heard Har- *Potter's* voice. Not to mention every DADA class. And at times like this: his red cheeks had reminded him of the brilliant blush both he and the Gryffindor had worn all that night.
As Severus continued on his way back to his room, he spared a thought to hope that he would have the apartments to himself tonight. It was a Friday, and earlier at dinner, he had overheard H- Potter's friends speaking of meeting later that night, which gave him hope.
Severus shivered again as icy fingers of damp air whispered over his exposed ears and brushed his hand across the upturned palm of Beautten. He was looking forward to stretching out on the couch in front of the fire. The statute stepped aside and Severus pushed open the door.
He almost groaned as his hopes for a peaceful night were dashed. He stopped and stared at the scene before him.
The red-headed Weasley boy was stretched right across were Severus wanted to lie, one arm tucked behind his head and the opposite hand clutching a long stick, charred at one end. Sitting primly at his head, in the chair Potter usually occupied was the muggle-born witch. She had a long, burnt stick in her hands too, and a brown paper bag besides. On the small table between the chairs was a tray holding several mugs more than was required for the number of people, a steaming pot of some warm beverage, stacks of biscuits, and thin slabs of chocolate.
And sitting in *Severus's* armchair, right before the hearth, his stick - providing the answer to the charred ends - in the fire burning merrily in the grate, was Potter.
The door thumped against Severus's heels as it swung shut and the sound attracted the attention of the trio by the fire. The four students stared at each other for a long moment. Then there was a soft hiss and Weasley turned back to the hearth.
"Harry," he exclaimed, effectively breaking the tableau, "Your marshmallow's on fire!"
Potter spun back to the hearth and wrenched his stick out of the hearth, the marshmallow on the end burning merrily. In the process of putting it out, he burnt his fingers and swore, causing Weasley to laugh. Granger turned to berate the red-head and Severus decided to take advantage of their distraction and slip away.
He'd made it to his bedroom door before anyone noticed.
"Seven!"
Severus repressed a sigh and turned. The trio was watching him again: Potter juggling the burnt marshmallow, Weasley with his head tipped back over the arm of the couch and Granger twisted about in her seat to face him. It had been her that had spoken. He looked at her without saying a word.
Granger smiled and gestured towards the hearth, "Why don't you join us?"
Severus opened his mouth to decline, but he was interrupted.
"Yeah, come on Sev. We're making s'mores!" Weasley had spun around and was now sitting up on the couch, patting the cushion next to him. Severus stared at him, aghast. No one had ever called him *Sev* before. In front of the fire, Potter snorted.
Severus glared at him. Potter caught his eye, shrugged and grinned. Then the eye contact lingered a little too long and they both flushed. Potter looked hastily away. That decided Severus. He would stay just to *spite* the other boy.
He looked back at Granger and nodded curtly. She smiled.
Severus off-loaded his books onto his desk before moving to take the opposite end of the couch from Weasley. Unfortunately, this put him closest to Potter, who seemed to have covered. Just as Severus sat down, he heard an almost inaudible hiss, "Bet you've never been called 'Sev' before."
The comment was followed by a distinct snigger, but since Potter wouldn't meet his eyes, Severus had no choice but to ignore him. He turned instead to the boy next to him, "What are s'mores?"
He was the centre of attention again. It was beginning to get tedious.
"You've never had s'mores before?" Weasley managed to sound horrified, affronted and amused all in one go.
Severus drew himself up, "And so what if I haven't?
"You don't know what you've been missing out on!"
Another stick was produced from somewhere and shoved unceremoniously into his hand. He turned to see Potter doing the shoving.
"Here, you need a stick to toast the marshmallows-" Granger held out the brown paper bag and Severus automatically took it, "- And then you've toasted the marshmallow, you put it on top of the chocolate and place them both between two biscuits."
A slab of chocolate and two biscuits materialised in his lap, courtesy of Weasley. Severus blinked. Slowly, he drew a marshmallow from the brown paper bag and held it in one hand. He looked between the charred end of his stick and the sugary confectionery for a moment, before bringing them together and trying to get the marshmallow to stay on the end of the stick. It fell off. He tried again, only to have it fall into his lap once more.
Several attempts and one mangled marshmallow later, a pair of hands appeared next to his on the stick. One hand held the stick steady, while the other plucked the sorry-looking marshmallow from it precarious perch and carried it away. Transfixed, Severus watched the hand carry the marshmallow up to soft lips. He swallowed when a pink tongue slipped out to curl around the sweet and draw it into the warm cavern of the mouth. He blinked and looked up into green eyes.
Both Harry and Severus flushed, but Harry didn't release Severus's hand on the toasting stick. Harry took a new marshmallow from the bag and put it in Severus's free hand. Taking that hand in his own, he guided it to the point of the stick and helped Severus press the marshmallow firmly onto it.
"You have to push it down fairly hard to get it to stay," he said, as he abruptly let go of both the stick and Severus and sat back. Severus flushed and looked away.
Ron slapped him on the back, "Right, now you've got to stick the marshmallow in the fire to toast it. But don't put it in too deep, or leave it there too long, or you'll end up burning like Harry did."
Severus nodded and concentrated on inserting his marshmallow into the fire. It was better than concentrating on the eyes on the side of his face, or the looks being passed between the other occupants of the room.
A minute later, Severus judged the marshmallow to be toasted to perfection and he withdrew it from the flames. He burnt his fingers slightly removing the hot sweet from the stick, but he managed to put together the 's'more' with no further mishaps. He held it in his hands and looked at it. The chocolate was beginning to melt under the heat of the toasted marshmallow.
He looked up and met the expectant gazes of the three Gryffindors.
"Well, go on!" exclaimed Hermione, "Eat it!"
Severus eyed the creation in his hands dubiously once more before bringing it slowly to his mouth and biting into it. It was one of the oddest things he had ever eaten. The milky sweetness of the chocolate offset the sugary sweetness of the marshmallow and the bland biscuits tempered to over all sweetness of them both. The texture was smooth and gooey and crunchy all in one bite. And he burnt his tongue on the marshmallow.
He dropped the rest of the s'more into his lap and fanned vainly at his burning mouth. The other three laughed. Hermione poured him a mug of the hot beverage and passed it to him. It was hot chocolate. Severus sipped at it, grateful for the even heat of it.
When his mouth had cooled down a little, he found the three friends watching him expectantly again.
"What?"
Harry smiled, "Did you like it?"
Severus retrieved his half-eaten s'more from his lap.
"It was........ different," he replied as he popped the rest in his mouth.
The Gryffindors laughed again, and this time, Severus smiled.
Ron grabbed the bag of marshmallows and mashed two onto the end of his stick. Hermione retrieved the bag from Ron and ate one un-toasted. Harry wrapped his hands around his mug of hot chocolate and brought to his lips to drink. He sighed blissfully and licked at the moustache of froth about his mouth as he set the mug back down. Severus followed his every move.
Harry caught the look and blushed. He reached for the bag of marshmallows and began making his own s'more. He handed the marshmallow to Severus and Severus copied his actions.
Ron had passed one of his toasted marshmallows to Hermione and they both were eating their s'mores. Ron lounged back against the arm of the couch.
"I wonder what these would be like with strawberry marshmallows."
Hermione grimaced, "I've had them before. It doesn't taste very nice."
"You can get strawberry marshmallows?" Severus blurted.
Ron turned to look at him, "Where have you been all your life? 'Course you can!"
Hermione swatted him, "He'd been in France, Ron. Maybe they don't have strawberry marshmallows in France."
Severus shrugged, taking the out Hermione had given him. He'd never eaten a marshmallow before this night: how was he supposed to know there were different sorts?
Harry was picking apart the s'more he had just made, eating each little bit as he snapped it off, "You know, you can get chocolate marshmallows too. Aunt Petunia used to get them all the time for Dudley; they were his favourite."
"Chocolate ones? Cor blimey, but they'd go well on a s'more!"
"Then there's those yellow ones as well. I never did figure out what flavour they were meant to be. Maybe lemon," Hermione mused.
"Or banana," suggest Harry.
Severus had eaten his second s'more as he watched the by-play between the friends and was starting on his third. He decided to join the conversation, "Or squash."
Ron snorted with laughter, "Hey yeah! Then they'd be like Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans!"
Harry, Hermione and even Severus laughed.
"Maybe we should write to Bertie Bott and get him to make Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Marshmallows. Then the yellow ones could be pineapple," laughed Harry.
"And purple eggplant-flavoured ones!" agreed Hermione.
"Green grass-flavoured ones," said Ron.
"Gray garlic-flavoured ones," said Severus.
The other three looked at him.
"Garlic-flavoured ones?"
"Why not? You can get earwax-flavoured beans, so why not garlic-flavoured marshmallows?"
"Yeah, why not? Then you could pale green peppermint-flavoured ones to clean your breath!"
The flavours got steadily worse and more outrageous from there. There was pale yellow codliver oil-flavoured ones, pale-pink medicine-flavoured ones, even black tar-flavoured ones.
All the while, the four students continued to make and eat s'mores, until at one point, Hermione paused and regarded the marshmallow in her hand and said, "You know, if you eat too many marshmallows, your stomach will bloat and push all your other organs aside. The marshmallows soak up all the moisture," before popping the marshmallow into her mouth.
The three boys turned a little green and pushed the brown paper bag away from them, settling for their hot chocolates instead. Talk then turned to outrageous stories of illnesses that each had heard of, each more unbelievable than the last.
Severus sat back for a moment, letting the conversation wash over him and watching his companions. These were Gryffindors. These three students were his rivals. He wasn't meant to be eating s'mores with them and laughing with them. He would never have been sitting her like this if he was still a Slytherin. He could never consider these people as friends.........
Harry turned to address a comment to him and Severus found himself drawn back into the conversation, which had moved onto books.
And as the night wore on, Severus found himself thinking: ~ I can't think why not. ~
TBC
AN: I know there were serious undertones when Harry was helping Severus with the marshmallow on the stick, but I did not mean them. They were unavoidable. *L*
And I know I abruptly changed from Potter, Weasley and Granger to Harry, Ron and Hermione, but I couldn't continue calling Harry 'Potter' after that incident and it sounded odd to call Ron and Hermione by their last names........