A/N: So this one is shorter, but uploaded faster. The final poll votes are 14 to slash and 11 to non-slash. So slash, it is my friends. If anyonehas huge problems with this, please don't throw a fit. the slash won't come for a while yet. And as to who's gonna be slashed, it shall be Severus and Rabastan Lestrange, and I'm not sure whether or not there'll be any Drarry. No idea.

So, read on my friends, and I'm sorry for the shortness of this chapter, I just want to get in the horses. I'll give a description of them as a little-mini chapter before I post the next one. We have over 80 reviews now! I love you guys!

I own nothing except the animals, Sylvia, Prince Manor, PMRA, and the plot. :D

Chapter 10: Prince Moon Riding Academy

The two led him into a bright, large, clean kitchen. Harry looked around attentively, eyes wide. A bowl of fruit was set out on the counter, and Draco pounced with a question shimmering in his silver eyes.

Snape waved his hand dismissively. "Help yourselves." He watched as his charges tackled the fruit with a vengance. "Teenagers…" He scoffed, turning to face the wide French glass doors.

Lips quirking at the fondness blossoming in his chest, he walked over and opened the doors dramatically, letting sunlight spill into the room. Harry and Draco jumped and looked up, a piece of apple hanging out of the Boy-Who-Lived's mouth.

Severus breathed in the crisp, clean scent of his home, closing his eyes for a moment of bliss. "Can I show Harry the horses?" Draco demanded, ruining the sweet peace.

"After we just got here?" Severus raised an eyebrow. "Go upstairs for awhile. You can show Mr. Potter around and let him pick a room if you two would like." He said.

"Alright. C'mon, Potter." Draco jerked his head back down the hallway from which they'd just came.

Harry threw a tired glance at Snape, who motioned for him to follow the blonde. Rolling his eyes, Harry turned and went after Draco, a bounce in his step. Dracp led him up the huge stairs, and began the grand tour of Prince Manor.

"Okay. This is the bonus room, it's like, I dunno, a playroom." Draco said, leading the green-eyed teen into a large room with skylights.

The room's walls were a light blue, and Harry was surprised to find the ceiling painted with fluffy white clouds. Against the far wall, another set of French doors led out onto a wide, stone balcony overlooking the surrounding lands.

To Harry's further surprise, was a flat-screen TV and entertainment center on one wall, across from a huge leather couch set that formed a box with three sides. The couch-box was framing an ottoman, which was also made of dark leather.

Draco shrugged. "It's pretty cool." He said, backing away and moving down the hall. "This is Severus' office." He opened another door and gestured at the neat desk and chair.

It looked vaguely like Snape's office back at Hogwarts' just not as terrifying. The door across the hall led to Sylvia's office, where Draco reminded Harry that she ran a small riding academy near the Manor. "The academy is called Prince Moon Riding Academy, and it's fairly small."

The next door led to a bathroom, and the one after that led to the first guest room. It was done in Slytherin green, and Draco proclaimed it was where he stayed whenever he came.

As they meandered down the hall, Harry learned that there were three more guest rooms, and he picked the last one. The room he chose was down in cremes and beiges, with sharp navy blue accents.

Draco had shrugged, okay-ed his decision, dropped some interior decorating tips ("The drapes would look better with a different pattern!") and had led him onwards. Severus' bedroom was there as well, and so was Sylvia's. Severus had claimed the master bedroom, and Sylvia had the secondary master room.

When the tour was finished, Draco led him back downstairs to show him the dining room, the living room, the sitting room, and they finished at the kitchen. They found Bella sprawled out on the patio outside, soaking up the cool stone.

The blonde Slytherin introduced Harry to a small swimming pool near the windows of the living room, which was to the right of the kitchen. A happy little grey and black dog waggled his way up to them, and Draco told Harry his name was Swentzle. Swentzle, Harry and Draco made their way off to find Severus.

Draco led the way down a small path leading through the backyard, then followed it up to a large riding ring, where they found Severus. The raven-haired man was leaning up against the rail, watching Sylvia as she cantered over jumps on a bay gelding.

"Is that Captain?" Harry asked, remebering Sylvia saying she had to go exercise a 'Captain'.

Snape nodded. "He's one of the school horses at Prince Moon." He noted, Sylvia and the horse going over a 2 foot jump before slowing to a walk.

"Did you pick a room?" The girl called, dismounting after giving Captain a firm pat on the neck for his good work.

"Yes, ma'am." Harry replied politely.

The girl laughed, leading the horse over to the fence. "Call me Sylvia, Harry." She paused, grinning slyly as Snape opened the gate. "Or, should I call you sir?"

Harry grinned back. "No thanks…Sylvia."

Snape rolled his eyes and took the reins from Sylvia. "I've missed riding. I always do, during the school year." He said, swinging up into the saddle.

Draco smirked. "Can we go riding later?" He asked craftily.

"That depends on how your muscles are holding up. And Potter can't- not with his lungs and wrist." Snape said, and before either boy could complain, he nudged the horse in the sides and trotted off.

Sylvia rolled her eyes. "That's Severus-speak for he cares about you and doesn't want you getting hurt." She said, leading them after Snape, further up the hill to the right back corner of the mansion.

"Ha, Sev loves me." Draco drawled, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet as he walked.

"Sev doesn't do the whole 'love' thing." Sylvia's mouth lifted into a smirk. "He does the whole, 'touch people I like and you will die' thing." She said, making the boys laugh.

"Hey, when that Stefano dude broke up with you, didn't Sev threaten to cut his heart out with a spoon if he ever came near you again?" Draco asked, silver eys sparkling with mischief.

Sylvia sighed. "Yeah, he scares away people like that. But he's good at protecting things he cares about." She told them, watching as Harry's jaw dropped.

"Snape threatened to cut out someone's heart with a spoon?" He asked incredulously. "No, freaking way!"

"Yes, freaking way." Draco replied, looking triumphant. "The guy made Sylvia cry, and Sev practically ripped his throat out."

Sylvia chuckled. "I don't think he would go that far on the first offence." She said, making both of the boys laugh even harder.

As they reached a large, white and green barn, Severus velvety smooth voice asked, "What's so funny?"

"You." Draco said, calmly moving over to where Snape was brushing down the horse Sylvia had ridden.

"Oh?" Snape raised an eyebrow. "Care to explain the joke?"

"Just you threatening Steffie." Sylvia responded cheerfully.

"Steffie? Ugh, that horrible blonde nincompoop?" Snape sounded so disgusted, but with that insult, all three of his companions burst out laughing.

"What?" He asked, finishing brushing the bay and clipping a leadrope onto his halter. "C'mon Captain." The horse sighed heavily and plodded along side Snape as he walked, leading the bay through the barn.

The barn was painted green and white on the outside, and was dark wood on the inside, with overhanging lights that shone brightly. The stable had 18 stalls, with 7 on one side and 11 on the other. The right side only had 7 stalls, but it also housed a wash bay and a tack room.

Harry almost immediately decided he loved the scent of the horses, leather, and sweat. Closing his eyes, he breathed in deeply, but ended up coughing a little. Draco glanced at him, looking worried. "You okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine." Harry responded thankfully, clearing his throat.

The two walked down the wide barn isle, Harry taking in all the sights. Each stall was fairly large, 12x12 boxes with sliding doors on the front and a mix of open and closed windows on the back wall, large enough for the horses to stick their heads out of.

The door of each stall had silver name plaques with black, prominent lettering. Below the plaques was hanging a lamenated sheet of information; age, height, breed, sex, sire and dam.

One stall beside the tack room had the plaque proudly reading 'Prince'. The sheet of paper beneath stated:

*8

*15.11 HH

*Arabian/ Faesteed

*Male

*King Spinner & Stardust

Harry traced the letters, noticing the black headcollar and green leadrope hanging from a hook on the door. "You said something about him when we were with Hagrid." Harry noted.

Draco nodded. "Yeah, that's Severus' horse. He's part Faery, hence the Faesteed breed mix." The blonde said.

The plaques down the right side of the stable all read:

Prince, Destier, Onyx, Cobra, Checkmate, Fiona, and Sparrow.

On the other side of the isle, the plaques in order read:

Serpent, Storm Cloud, Captain, Lavender, Ranger, Sparta, Rose, Firefly, Melody, and Echo.

Harry looked around in amazement. "These are all Professor Snape's horses?" He asked, sounding mildly shell-shocked.

Draco laughed. "No. Some of them are borders. I know the all of them except Ranger, Firefly, and this Sparrow fellow. They all must be new this year. I know everyone on the left except Echo, Serpent and Melody are borders."

Then Harry noticed the last stall was empty, with no plaque. "Who stays here?"

Draco shrugged. "No one, I guess. That used to be Mack's stall, but I guess he left. He was boring anyway, and his owner was a pig." He said, as they moved through the barn and out into the sunlight.

Another ring, this one larger, was set up to the right, near the edge of the forest. To the left, was a small field and a trail into the woods, leading back into more pastures. The pasture that they had seen beside the driveway was connected to these pastures, seperated by a fence with a wide gate in it.

It appeared all the horses were out in these pastures, as Snape had opened the gate and was sending Captain out to join them. The bay gelding stood still for a minute, regarding the black-clad man in a manner of surprise, then galloped off into the field, whinnying loudly.

Severus smirked and shook his head, as Sylvia stood next to him, arms around his waist in a hug. Draco and Harry joined them, leaning up against the white, plank fence. "So, this is Prince Moon?" Harry asked. "It's so cool here!"

"And you haven't seen the woods yet!" Draco added.

"And you won't, either of you, until you're healed." Snape said sternly as Sylvia released him.

"Yeah, you two be careful." Sylvia added. "Oh, and Draco?"

The blonde looked at her expectantly. "I have a surprise for you later." She winked, then walked off.

"Still won't tell me?" Draco asked Severus.

Snape's lips twisted into a smirk. Draco huffed. "I thought not. C'mon, Harry, I'll show you around the Acadamey." He offered.

Severus smiled as he watched his two charges walking off up the fence, chatting amiably. Maybe the summer wouldn't be so long, after all.