All belongs to J. K. Rowling and Warner Bros.
Chapter 10
Come and See What I Can Do!
'Ok, Mr Potter, let's start this over, shall we?' Snape said as Harry stood before the spindle-legged table and white feather. It was nine thirty in the morning and Snape had indeed started off with a few changes, the first being that Harry was now to take the memory potion in the mornings as well as at night – much to his displeasure. The Professor had thrust that little surprise on him as soon as he'd arrived at the kitchen table for breakfast.
Second, magic lessons and memory work were now swapped over – magic in the morning and memory in the afternoon. Harry couldn't really see what difference this would make but he made no comment about it.
'It seems that perhaps, seeing as you are a child, some extra incentives are needed,' Snape continued on looking a little sour.
Harry looked up quizzically as Snape disappeared for a moment and then returned to the room with a box which he set down on the floor. Harry looked at it, his toes scrunching together and digging into the carpet piles of the rug.
'In here,' Snape pointed a long finger to the box at his feet,' are some of the items that Professor McGonagall was referring to yesterday. There are a variety of things including some art supplies that I'm sure you will find a use for.'
Harry's eyes immediately lit up and he began to move towards the box with eager curiosity before Snape put out a hand to stop him in his tracks.
'Stop. Did I say you could come and look?' He questioned sharply.
'No,' Harry said, stopping about three feet away.
'Move back to where you were,' Snape said with a silent reprimand etched on his face. Harry stepped back looking slightly crestfallen but said nothing as he waited for Snape to continue.
'Now, you may have these items only when you have become proficient with Wingardium Leviosa,' Snape finally explained.
Harry's face dropped immediately.
'It also seems,' Snape continued, ignoring the look on Harry's face, 'that perhaps having me push you to succeed like I have been doing is not productive… at this stage at least… therefore I am going to leave you to practice. You know the wand movement by now and the correct pronunciation. If you need me, or heaven forbid if you actually accomplish it, I will be just next door in the kitchen. Understood?'
Harry nodded, his eyes once again flicking down to the box.
'Here,' Snape said as he strode forwards and handed Harry his wand, 'get started and remember… concentrate.'
He headed back towards the doorway before stopping in his tracks. 'Oh and Mr Potter, if I find out you've been sneaking a look through that box instead of practicing I don't think I need to tell you what will happen.'
'I won't,' Harry said, shaking his head fervently.
'Very well,' Snape answered after surveying Harry shrewdly for several moments. 'In the kitchen if needed,' he reminded and with that he stalked out of the room leaving the door partly open.
Harry stood on the spot for several moments, his wand warm in his hands as he clutched it.
Wow, the Professor really was changing track with this, although the stern reprimands and warnings still remained. Harry felt a real sense of relief however that the Professor was not going to be breathing down his neck and shouting at him for the next few hours.
Temptation to go over and rummage through the box surged through Harry instinctively but the memory of the day before and Snape's stern warning before he'd left the room reverberated in his mind and held him back. Slowly he turned his back to the box and set his attention to the feather waiting on the little table.
Snape was somewhat mildly impressed by the boy's control. From past experience with the brat he had held a strong suspicion that once he left the room Harry would succumb to temptation and plunder the forbidden box. He had lurked behind the door that led through to the kitchen for several moments, ready to strike like a serpent if the boy even lifted up a flap. But no surprise ambush was necessary.
The boy stood for several moments, obviously weighing up his options and deciding on whether Snape would follow through on his warning if he did have a sneak peek. Finally, however, he seemed to succumb to the fact that it was in his best interest to do as he was told and he drew his eyes away and set into the task at hand.
Snape smirked slightly to himself as he watched Harry turn back towards the table. Minerva could bleat at him all she liked about his methods but clearly something was working. Of course the boy wasn't completely trustworthy – he would have to keep going back to check on him from time to time; but it was a start.
Harry felt so much better practicing this way rather than having Professor Snape barking orders at him and breathing down his neck. He was able to concentrate much better for a start and his heart wasn't pounding in his throat with anxiety. He still hadn't been able to levitate the feather but was pleased that it was at least responding far more than previously; twirling and twisting on the table with each attempt.
Then at around ten o'clock Harry uttered the words for probably the thirtieth time and his heart leapt. The feather suddenly rose up slightly off the table and wobbled in midair in front of a shocked yet jubilant looking Harry.
He'd done it! He'd actually done it!
A grin spread across his face as he hopped from foot to foot in excitement. The feather flopped back on to the table after only a few seconds as his enthusiasm took over his ability to concentrate, but it didn't matter… he had done it!
He was about to call out to Snape in excitement but stopped himself, realising it may have been just a fluke. He wanted to get it perfect before he showed Snape then the professor could be really pleased with him.
A further ten minutes of practice and Harry had the feather floating about three feet off the table each time he uttered the incantation. He just couldn't hold in his excitement any longer… he was going to burst.
'Professor! Professor Snape! Professor!' He called out excitedly. Snape came hurtling into the room a second later with his wand at the ready as if in damage control.
'What's the matter?' he questioned sharply, his eyes flicking around the room as if he expected to see it up in flames or a wall caved in.
'I did it!' Harry pronounced proudly.
'That is no reason to holler the house down!' Snape scolded as he let his arm drop back to his side.
'Sorry,' Harry said, though not sounding the least bit repentant. 'Watch, I can do it!' he pronounced again and then, raising his wand, he said the incantation and flicked his wrist through the air. The feather rose obediently as Snape looked on. The extra ten minutes of practice had even got rid of the wobbles.
'See!' Harry breathed out as if in awe before lowering the feather back down to the table and turning his eyes to Snape expectantly.
'Well, at least we now have a starting point,' Snape nodded after a momentary silence. He glanced down at the hopeful green eyes that were looking up at him expectantly…Lily's eyes…and sighed; an internal struggle was developing. Damn the Headmaster and Minerva for their child psychology 'lecture'!
Snape took a deep breath and then said in a dour, stiff voice, 'Very good, Potter.'
He grimaced sourly as Harry beamed back at him. The praise felt strange on his tongue, not natural at all and the rapt expression that it evoked on the brat's face was even worse. Snape closed his eyes for moment, trying to regain some composure against the frustration he felt at having to praise the boy for something that he should have been able to do in a day. He managed to calm the aggravation by convincing himself that once the brat got the hang of a few more things he wouldn't need to continue such sickly behaviour.
'Well?' Harry's triumphant voice rang out.
'Well what?' Snape asked as he opened his eyes to find Harry several steps closer to him and looking up eagerly.
'You know!' Harry exclaimed, his eyes flicking to the box near Snape's feet.
Snape folded his arms across his chest in response and looked down his nose at Harry who was hopping from one foot to the other in eagerness.
'Did you look while I wasn't here?' Snape interrogated. He was confidant of the answer but couldn't help but press the point regardless.
'No,' Harry answered innocently, his head shaking from side to side.
Snape eyed him for several more moments as Harry stood on the spot, sucking his bottom lip in between his teeth in anticipation.
Snape finally relented and bent down, picked up the box and turned back to Harry who was now bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet.
'Apart from the books the rest are to stay down here not be kept in your bedroom, understood?' Snape said, handing the box over. 'You can put them in the cupboards at the bottom of the cabinet over there.' He pointed to the cabinet along the far wall by the doorway into the kitchen. 'The ball is to be kept outside.'
Harry nodded eagerly as he pulled up one of the flaps to find a soccer ball on the top.
Snape had spent half an hour the previous evening hand picking the items in the box from the mound that Minerva had originally sent over – a soccer ball, a pack of playing cards, a chess set, two jigsaw puzzles, a game of checkers, four books, a small tin of coloured pencils, a sketch pad and some dragon figurines (which to Snape's annoyance had hissed and smoked at him when he'd thrust them roughly into the box).
As far as Snape was concerned he had tried to pick the most unobtrusive items; things that wouldn't make too much of a mess or disrupt the peace. Cards, books, puzzles and drawing supplies seemed the most sedentary and the soccer ball… well after Harry's muddy adventure at seeing an apparition of a cat that was mostly likely just a shadow he felt it best the boy had something to keep him occupied out there instead of letting his wild imagination run rampant.
He'd also made the decision to ban the toys, apart from the books, from Harry's room. A bedroom was to sleep in, not a playhouse. Besides, if he ever needed to send the boy there as punishment the last thing he wanted was for the brat to be sitting up there playing instead of thinking about his indiscretions. He'd cleared out the bottom of the cabinet the night before specifically to make room for the new additions.
'Can I look through it now?' Harry asked, his voice verging on impatience as he continued to bounce up and down on his toes.
'You have ten minutes,' Snape said, shaking his head slightly at the boy's ridiculous display over a few toys, 'and then I want them put away. We're going to extend the work on levitation.'
'Ok,' Harry nodded quickly, then moved to the middle of the room and placed the box on the floor, taking a spot next to it on his knees.
Snape rolled his eyes as Harry began to dig into the box with fervour. Toys were overrated for children as far as Snape was concerned, especially for wizarding children who had so many skills and abilities they needed to master to become functioning members of wizarding society. Toys were a frivolous extra that took away valuable time and corrupted a child's concentration. He'd never had such things growing up, had never felt he needed them and he was better off for it that was for sure – his potions prowess unmatched because of the time he'd spent bettering himself instead of playing with magical dragon figures.
Harry ate up the ten minutes in eagerness, pulling out each item from the box and examining it in turn. He was especially pleased to see the set of colouring pencils and sketchpad there. He also loved the dragons and was in awe that they actually seemed alive; moving around in his hands and even furling small spirals of smoke from their nostrils.
When the ten minutes was up Harry was strongly tempted to try and tuck the little dragons into his trouser pockets but Snape seemed to be watching him like a hawk so he reluctantly placed them with the other things in the cupboard and closed the door on them with a slightly sad expression.
Once Harry's 'playtime' was over he worked for a further hour gaining more control over the feather with Snape overseeing. By the end of the hour he was able to guide the feather in different directions and keep control over it for much longer.
Harry felt immensely pleased with himself along with a sense of awe that he had managed to achieve something so unbelievable. He couldn't seem to keep the smile off his face or stop from asking Snape if he was pleased with him.
'I did really well today, didn't I?' Harry pressed, jumping around at Snape's side as the professor picked up the table to put it back where it belonged.
'The day is not over, Potter…however it is certainly an improvement,' Snape managed to say after a pause.
Giving positive encouragement was one thing but lavishing the brat with praise for accomplishing the simplest of spells imaginable was not going to happen. The boy would have to work a lot harder than that and aim for higher things before he was ever impressed enough.
'Get your shoes on, it's time for you to go outside,' Snape said bluntly over his shoulder as he moved towards the door.
An hour later and Snape made his way to the back door ready to call Harry in for lunch. He had spent the last hour reading up on some theoretical analysis of the effects of temperature on dried potion ingredients, enjoying the peace and quiet that had descended on the house while Harry was outside.
True, a few times whilst reading his thoughts had strayed to the boy and what he was getting up to outside causing the professor to silently curse the brat for annoying him and interrupting his work even when he wasn't in the same room.
He pulled open the back door and immediately scowled as the sounds of buoyant whooping met his ears - his sense of peace broken in the space of a mere second. He muttered darkly under his breath once again at what Potter's recklessness and Dumbledore's subsequent request was going to cost him this summer. The brat better be damn thankful at the end of all this!
As he stepped over the threshold of the doorway Harry came into view. He was controlling the soccer ball along the ground with his feet and then sent it with a mighty kick through a makeshift goal that he had set up at the other end of the grass using two upturned plastic buckets.
As the ball sailed smoothly between them Harry began to whoop and cheer; his arms up above his head as if in a display of triumph to an imaginary crowd.
Snape grimaced at the display as he stepped onto the grass. Could the child do nothing quietly! But of course he shouldn't have expected anything else – the boy was obviously, subconsciously of course, suffering from the lack of worship he was so used to getting from all his adoring fans!
'Potter! Stop that infernal racket this instant!' Snape called out over the top of Harry's continued jubilation. Harry stopped in his tracks, turning towards Snape as he brought his arms down to his sides. His face was slightly flushed and he looked out of breath but was grinning widely.
'Did you see me kick that one?' He asked Snape with energized enthusiasm as he pointed towards the bucket goals.
'Yes I did,' Snape answered tightly. 'I also saw you running around like an idiot and making enough noise to drown out a banshee!'
'I was only pretending,' Harry answered as he began to walk towards the back door.
'Yes, I know exactly what you were imagining, Potter,' Snape chided before holding a hand out. 'Stop… before you come any further go and pick my buckets up and put them back where you got them from,' Snape ordered.
'I got them from around the side, by the water tap,' Harry called out as he dutifully trotted back to the buckets and picked them up. 'Not the forbidden side, the other side where the gate is, 'cause I know I'm not allowed the other side,' he explained further at seeing Snape's deep set scowl. He walked back with the two buckets swinging in his arms. 'See, I listened to what you told - '
'Just put them back,' Snape cut across Harry's banter with irritated impatience.
'Yes Sir,' Harry said after a slight pause, holding the buckets down at his sides.
'And when you've done that come inside and wash your hands, it's time for lunch,' Snape added as he began to retreat.
'Ok,' Harry answered brightly. Snape turned back with narrowed eyes at Harry's suspiciously cheerful tone. Perhaps the boy had been up to something else out here apart from using his property in such an egregious way.
Harry moved out of sight around the side of the house and after a few more moments of suspicious contemplation Snape moved back inside, leaving the door open for Harry.
TBC…
Hi all, I hope you enjoyed this latest chapter. Thank you for your reviews, I try to reply to most of my reviews but unfortunately a few of them lately have been from guests who I cannot reply to… so I just wanted to say thanks to the Guest reviewers, I had some really lovely comments.
I also had some more critical comments regarding the pace of this story (some from guest reviewers also which I couldn't reply to which was unfortunate) so I feel like I should explain here so they can decide whether to continue reading or not – my writing style is quite slow paced, I prefer to write small (sometimes it seems like insignificant moments) that build a relationship slowly over time. It's not everyone's cup of tea which I understand…but that is how I love to write
I had complaints that Snape's attitude is not changing 10 chapters in but in reality it has only been approximately 3-4 days that this entire story has been told over so far (that's what I mean by slow pace). I can't realistically see Snape's view of Harry changing in such a short space of time.
Anyway I do appreciate people taking the time to review/comment or send me PM's whether it positive or negative as I always love to reply and interact with readers. Thank you!
